Nancy Pelosi ranks second-in-
line to the presidency after
Dick Cheney
Posted on 11/18/2006 5:33:09 PM PST by bruinbirdman
New Speaker's embarrassing week has made it easier for her opponents to attack
Republican strategists plotting their party's comeback after it lost control of Congress have identified the "first lady" of Democrat politics as a key target in the 2008 White House campaign — even though she will not be running.
Senior party operatives told The Sunday Telegraph that they are already co-ordinating plans to attack Nancy Pelosi, the liberal Californian congresswoman and Speaker-in-waiting who suffered a damaging rebuff from her own party caucus last week.
Nancy Pelosi ranks second-in-
line to the presidency after
Dick Cheney
The Republican strategy is not only to undermine Mrs Pelosi's control of the House but also to associate her in voters' minds with Senator Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner for the 2008 Democrat presidential nomination.
"Two years of Pelosi gives a good idea of what four years of Hillary will be like," said Tom DeLay, the Republican powerbroker who ran his party in the House before he was caught up in a lobbyist corruption scandal. "They are both committed liberals and we will make that clear to the American people."
Mrs Clinton, 59, has yet to declare herself as a presidential candidate but has accumulated a vast war chest of campaign donations that would make her hard to stop if she decides to run for the Democratic nomination. Republican strategists are determined to prepare for the possibility well in advance.
Mrs Pelosi's opening-week blunders will make the Republican tactics easier to execute. Her ally John Murtha, a Vietnam veteran who is leading calls for an immediate US troop pull-out from Iraq, lost heavily in a party ballot for the position of majority leader, one rung down from speaker, despite Mrs Pelosi's heavy lobbying for him. That embarrassment presages the trouble she will have holding together the Democratic majority, whose members range from left-wingers from inner-city districts to centrist congressmen from suburban areas in the Midwest and West.
Mrs Pelosi, 66, who is married to a multi-millionaire property investor, will become the most powerful woman in American political history when the new House sits for the first time in January.
As speaker, she ranks second-in-line to the presidency after Dick Cheney, the vice-president. Her solidly liberal voting record during her 19 years as a San Francisco congresswoman have made her a long-time target for Republican strategists' attacks.
They now plan to focus on the difficulty she is likely to have in running the House, splits within Democrat ranks on Iraq and her boast that she we will oversee "the most ethical Congress ever" in the wake of Republican corruption scandals. "Pelosi has set the bar extraordinarily high for the conduct of her caucus, herself and even Hillary," said a former Republican House strategist.
Tony Coehlo, a former Democrat whip in the House who ran Vice President Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign, acknowledged his party concerns. "Even seasoned Democrats are concerned about the Republicans' ability to tar the polished Hillary by attacking Mrs Pelosi," he told The Sunday Telegraph.
"If Nancy does poorly, that hurts Hillary. That's really unfair, but that's what everyone thinks. That's reality. To help Hillary, Nancy has to be perceived as an effective leader and she's had a terrible start. It was just an awful first week."
A senior Republican operative who planned the damaging advertisements against Sen John Kerry, the Democrats' presidential candidate in 2004, predicted that it would not be easy to turn Mrs Pelosi into a surrogate target for Mrs Clinton.
"If Hillary has been able to separate herself from criticisms of her own husband, she'll try to do the same with Pelosi," he said. "She and her people are very smart and they will try to highlight the difference between the two women. You will see Hillary move more to the centre."
But a former strategist for a Republican House leader said: "If Pelosi comes across as not ready for prime time, that's going to hamstring Hillary. Fair or not, people can't help but make that comparison… Even Hillary's people are recognising that their fates are linked."
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ROTFLMAO!!
**They ought to go after Harry Reid, whose business ventures leave him far more open to such a thing. **
I think they will do that too.
I could see Hillary and Pelosi trying a good cop / bad cop strategy. Hillary will try to make herself look good by comparison. And Pelosi will get to play her real lioberal self.
The "vast right wing conspiracy" arises once more!
Cat fight, cat fight - Bwahahahaha VRC - we're so powerful dontcha know
In this last election, the Dems demonstrated that they could turn out their base to vote for anyone with a 'D' after their name. Don't underestimate them.
Let's give the Republican leaders six months or so and then judge them on their performance. Who knows, maybe an effective leader will emerge. I do have some hope for Mitch McConnell in the Senate, and maybe McCain will stop playing footsie with the Rats and toughen up because he's running for president now.
For now, let's do what the libs do: Blame EVERYTHING on Bela Pelosi!!
And, while we are at it, let's use their own arguments against them. For instance:
I have heard more times than I can count from the libs that those on the right who have not served in the military have no basis for criticizing the likes of al-Murtha or John F'n Kerry (who by the way served in Vietnam) and therefore should not criticize.
So, using their logic, how about the next time a male Democrat starts talking about abortion, we tell him he cannot talk about that subject unless he actually has gone through an abortion?
Or those talking about raising the minimum wage? Well, if they have never worked for minimum wage, they have no right or basis to discuss it.
Wow, this could be fun.
LOL...forget it, steveo, she doesn't really mean it! You keep whipping her and I'll get the handcuffs. :-)
For other readers, this is an inside joke stemming from a Saturday Night Live skit. View the entire video of the Nancy Pelosi SNL skit at YouTube for the hilarious meaning.
Best of luck to all. Dude, welcome to the two party system, where principles don't matter, only perceptions. As Peggy Noonan noted this morning, the RATS won because they ran to the right of the Right Wing Conspiracy. And they know it, even if the news has gotten delayed on its way to Mr DeLay. And they'll win again in 2008, at this rate.
Ahem...she most certainly is.
LOL!!!! - now THAT'S funny!!!!
She's been stretched so many times, you really don't want to know where the second set immigrated from - you really don't.
Too much surgery I think. I've seen the look after several face lifts and several eye surgeries. She can deny it, but her face says she lies.
That evil Right Wing Conspiracy . . . always plotting something.
I won't ask but I'm sure it's South of the border.
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