Utter Disarray Among The Democrats
This is beginning to resemble a really badly written farce at this point. Nancy Pelosi has backed away - frantically - from the proposal she firmly supported just yesterday to strip all the earmarks out of the omnibus spending bill. The Democrats are in total disarray at this point and do not appear to be able to accomplish anything.
In the face of stiff opposition from powerful fellow Democrats, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) has abandoned a proposal she supported less than 24 hours ago to eliminate lawmakers’ earmarks from the omnibus spending package.
Pelosi told the Democratic chairmen of the House Appropriations subcommittees, the so-called appropriations cardinals, that earmarks would stay in the omnibus and that Democratic leaders would accede to cut spending to levels demanded by President Bush in order to save 11 spending bills from a veto, said sources familiar with a meeting that took place in Pelosi’s office early Wednesday morning.
The House Democrats’ tentative plan is to finalize the package for passage in the next day or so, said sources.
By leaving earmarks largely untouched and agreeing to Bush’s budget ceiling, Democrats have capitulated in their spending battle with Republicans. In the end, Democrats realized they would not be able to muster enough Republican votes to override Bush’s veto. The president vowed to reject any spending package that exceeded the $933 billion limit he set.
Pelosi is actually trying to paint this as victory. That's putting three-foot thick coat of lipstick on a pig. The bottom line, Congress will meet the budget limit set by Bush and will have to cut money from somewhere to pay for the pork festival. That isn't a victory for the Democrats or the American people.
By feeblemind, Thursday, 13 December , 2007 @ 10:04 am
Rangel is right about one thing. The filibuster should require the party invoking it to talk for the length of the filibuster. The filibuster was created to be a delaying tactic, not a de facto veto by the opposition. But the repubs allowed the dems to just declare a filibuster without the resulting talking. Turnabout is fair play.
By martian, Thursday, 13 December , 2007 @ 1:26 pm
Pelosi has shown, once again, why she will go down in history as the single most ineffective majority leader ever - and a good thing that is for the American People in general and for the Republicans who (if they can muster the will to do so) can use it against her and the Democrats to take back seats next year.