From Juan Cole, Informed Comment, 17 December 2009:
“Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi says that it is up to President Obama to sell his troop surge to Democrats in Congress. Then she called for a bowl and washed her hands.”
Based on remarks by Pelosi to reporters:
- “The president is going to have to make his case.”
- “What I’ve told members is to give the president room, to listen to what he has to say”
- Many House Democrats “are eager to have a vote soon on Afghanistan”
Put these two stories (U.S. military contractors in Afghanistan pay off the Taliban to get convoys through safely and American weapons lost or stolen may land up in Taliban’s hand as US Failed to Track 87,000 Arms Shipped to Afghanistan), and what do you get?
Sheer dementia. As proof of which…NATO chief asks for Russian help in Afghanistan. Riiiiiiiiiight. Because the Russians did so well in Afghanistan the last time…
If I wrote this in a satirical movie script and shopped it around Hollywood, no one would buy it. Too ridiculous.
Heh.
Pelosi sees herself as the Queen of Government and co-equal of the President. She also represents a wealthy district that is so liberal that there are grumblings there among activists that she is “too conservative”. She is not going to knock herself out for the Obama administration except when David Axelrod has a chokehold on something Pelosi values highly.
Nominally, the Congressional leadership of the same Party as the POTUS are supposed to follow his lead,, which is what happened with George W. Bush. In practice, this occurs infrequently. Clinton only received wholehearted support from his Party leaders on scandal-defense. Carter had more opposition from Tip O’Neil than Ronald Reagan did. The GOP leaders in the Senate took a perverse pleasure in sabotaging Richard NIxon at every turn.
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FM reply: Please cite some evidence for the “Queen of Government” and “co-equal” claims. I recall nothing of the kind. In fact, IMO she’s modest and self-effacing compared to Kings of the House like Sam Rayburn and Tip O’Neil.
(2) “the Congressional leadership of the same Party as the POTUS are supposed to follow his lead”
“Supposed to” by what authority? Most of the founders would have considered your view to be an anathema. The machinery of party control has diminished in effectiveness each deacade since WWII; campaign finance reform killed it.