Posted on 04/06/2007 2:18:11 PM PDT by jazusamo
Nancy Pelosi has persistently violated her duty to exercise her speaker powers in accordance with the Constitution and the current "106th Congress House Rules Manual" (House Document 106-320).
In short, she has fostered what is known as "tyranny by the majority" — and violated House Rules that give her the duty to maintain order, civility, and decorum, and to foster "comity" (a word rarely used these days, meaning "mutual respect").
The "House Rules Manual" includes Jefferson's "Manual of Parliamentary Procedures," originally drafted by the founder of the Democratic Party when, as vice president, he presided over the Senate from 1797 to 1801.
In 1837 the House, provided that the provisions of Jefferson's Manual should "govern the House in all cases to which they are applicable and in which they are not inconsistent with [subsequently adopted rules]."
Jefferson's manual, which is still in effect, was a codification of 18th century "common law" and re-affirms that House Rules are "the only weapons by which the minority can defend itself . . . and by a strict adherence to which the weaker party can only be protected from those irregularities and abuses which these forms were intended to check, and which the wantonness of power is but too often apt to suggest to large and successful majorities."
Currently, Pelosi, who is second in line to the president, often describes herself as a partner in his power — a higher role than the Constitution grants to the vice president, who is first in the line of secession — and whose only official duties are confined to presiding over the Senate.
Pelosi Oversteps the Electorate
In closing the recent debate on the $125 billion Emergency Defense Appropriations bill's provision to bring our troops home from Iraq next year, Pelosi — purporting to speak for the entire electorate — proclaimed "The American people have lost faith in the president's conduct of this war . . . The American people see the reality of the war; the president does not."
Both before and after the debate she has also often derided him for waging "a war without end." As Democratic Sen. Patrick Moynihan once noted "Members of Congress are entitled to their own opinions — but not to their own facts. Mrs. Pelosi's false assertion of a national consensus was then belied by a role call vote of 218 to 213."
The facts are that she presides over a House divided by both the war in Iraq and a political culture war at home. She obviously wants to win the domestic political war against the Republicans by setting a deadline for the Iraq war.
Another fact is that when she first became speaker she pledged to curtail the "earmarking" of appropriation bills with pork. Yet she encouraged her longtime Democratic ally John Murtha to use his powers on the Appropriations Committee to load the bill with $24 billion of earmarked pork. The New York Times of March 24 described it as "largely aimed at domestic program unrelated to military expenses [and] was added by Democrats to make the bill more acceptable to lawmakers."
Similarly, the Senate later approved a similar pork laden measure in a party line vote of 51 to 47, with Sen. Lieberman the sole Democrat siding with the Republicans. Despite the fact that, with defense funds due to expire in May, Pelosi then used her powers to recess until April 29 — which even her liberal supporters in the media have characterized as an exercise of partisan brinkmanship.
Pelosi's Syrian Mistake
She also denied a request by President Bush (who has primary constitutional authority over the conduct of foreign policy) that as the third-highest official of the United State she not make an official visit to Syria, which our government has officially declared to be a "terrorist state."
On a high profile televised visit to Syria, she conferred with President Bashar al-Hassad. She not only purported to speak for the American people in opposing Bush's policies and the Iraq war, she purported to have spoken for Israel. As reported in the Jerusalem Post, "[Israel's] Prime Minister Office issued a rare ‘clarification' Wednesday that, in gentle diplomatic terms, contradicted U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's statement in Damascus that she had brought a message from Israel about a willingness to engage in peace talks."
As a result of her defiance of the president and persistent confrontation of his foreign policies, Democrat Leon Panetta, the former chief of staff to President Clinton, was quoted in the April 2 New York Times as cautioning that if the Democrats "go into total confrontation mode on other than [domestic issues] where they just pass bills and the president vetoes them, that's a recipe for losing seats in the next election."
Ironically, history is now repeating itself. Our first woman Speaker Pelosi may well deserve to become the second Democratic speaker to be compelled to resign from Congress.
The prior history of Democratic Speaker Jim Wright is now being repeated by Nancy Pelosi — perhaps by a loss of institutional loss of memory of the House Democratic caucus, which forced Wright to resign.
After Wright became speaker five South American presidents had agreed on a peace plan which the Reagan administration vigorously opposed.
Anti-Sandinistas and Contra hardliners became incensed when they learned that Speaker Wright had secretly sat in on a meeting between Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo the Catholic leader being asked to mediate the peace. The Washington Post wrote "[Wright's] approach marks a dramatic shift in the running of the House and in the role of the House speaker as Washington's No. 1 Democrat."
The Wrong Way for Wright
As described 10 years later by Wright's own chief of staff: "[Then] Republican Minority Whip Trent Lott described Wright's participation in foreign affairs as "The most arrogant abuse of power I've ever seen . . . Dick Cheney of Illinois, [then] chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, got so mad at Jim Wright that he began to wax nostalgic about the warmth and affection for the previous speaker, Tip O'Neill. ‘There are no such feelings for Jim Wright,' he observed." Then-House Minority Leader Newt Gingrich began filing numerous accusations of malfeasance by the speaker in the House Ethics Committee.
In the end Jim Wright resigned.
With the unanimous endorsement of the Democratic caucus the House then voted to replace him with Democrat Tom Foley — who restored the traditional civility and comity that had prevailed under Democratic Speakers Sam Rayburn, John McCormack, Carl Albert and "Tip" O'Neill.
Currently, with public respect for professional politicians at an all time low, and the financing of presidential campaigns at an all time high, the moral authority of both the Democratic Party and the GOP is diminishing. In my view, the longer Nancy Pelosi remains our party's leading spokesperson the more her penchant for political warfare and non-compliance with Jefferson's "Manual" will enhance the chances of Republican control of Congress and/or the White House in 2008.
She will serve our party and the nation best by resigning.
Jerry Zeifman served as Democratic Counsel of the House Judiciary for 17 years. He has recently published "Hillary's Pursuit of Power." For his other books and articles go to his Web site, Jzeifman.com.
Grabbing popcorn and soda. This should be good.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We need her. Really!
I’ll join you. :-)
Not a chance in hell. Democrats NEVER resign... that’s what Republicans do.
The Republicans have a golden opportunity to accuse her of a felony here. If they turn their countless cheeks, the dims will be emboldened and do worse and worse.
I imagine she's helping with the GOP fundraising.
she should, but she won’t..she’s a dem and they’re immune..(See William Jefferson D-LA for a prime example)..
We all need to contact our representatives. DO NOT let Pelosi get away with her felony. If she does not get prosecuted, than our laws mean absolutely NOTHING.
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
Let your representative know that you want Pelosi to be held accountable for violating the Logan Act.
No, Nancy Pelosi shouldn`t resign. She should be arrested and tried for treason.
Stupidity and arrogance are not crimes, last time I checked. What else can Pelosi be charged with?
By a democrat about a democrat...interesting. Is this [idea] getting any traction, though.
I think all Freepers should write their representatives and demand her resignation.
May she go in disgrace and drag as many Liberal traitors as she can with her.
Works for me!
Pelosi, Reid, Jefferson, Feinstein, Clinton, and Durbin should resign just for starters.
Succession??????????
from the wall street journal:
Illegal Diplomacy
By ROBERT F. TURNER
April 6, 2007; Page A10
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may well have committed a felony in traveling to Damascus this week, against the wishes of the president, to communicate on foreign-policy issues with Syrian President Bashar Assad. The administration isn’t going to want to touch this political hot potato, nor should it become a partisan issue. Maybe special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, whose aggressive prosecution of Lewis Libby establishes his independence from White House influence, should be called back.
The “Logan Act” makes it a felony and provides for a prison sentence of up to three years for any American, “without authority of the United States,” to communicate with a foreign government in an effort to influence that government’s behavior on any “disputes or controversies with the United States.” Some background on this statute helps to understand why Ms. Pelosi may be in serious trouble.
President John Adams requested the statute after a Pennsylvania pacifist named George Logan traveled to France in 1798 to assure the French government that the American people favored peace in the undeclared “Quasi War” being fought on the high seas between the two countries. In proposing the law, Rep. Roger Griswold of Connecticut explained that the object was, as recorded in the Annals of Congress, “to punish a crime which goes to the destruction of the executive power of the government. He meant that description of crime which arises from an interference of individual citizens in the negotiations of our executive with foreign governments.”
Who will be the first Republican with the guts to demand that she resigns?!
We meed to pursue this with the same persistence that the Rats use.
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