Boss Tweed Pelosi Shuts off the Lights on the Energy Debate

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's finest moment was the day she was elected as Speaker of the House. That's when she curled her fist and flexed her right bicep, he-man style, promising to institute "the most ethical Congress in history" after all those years of testosterone-addled, business-as-usual in the U.S. Congress.

Shortly afterwards she named Rep. William Jefferson, caught with $90,000 funny-money in the fridge, to the Homeland Security Committee. That's the committee that's supposed to protect us from terrorists. Then in a dramatic move, she proposed a rule to ban earmarks from all appropriations bills. (Just kidding.)

That was the time, you may recall, when Hillary was a shoe-in as the next Commander-in-Chief, the Surge was just a cola drink, and the price of gas hovered at $2 a gallon.

Soon Pelosi's airtight image began to unwind. Remember her grandstanding trip to Syria to meet with terrorist-enabler President Assad? And her complaint that the Air Force wouldn't let her use a gas-guzzling jet to fly to California?

Before long it became apparent that Pelosi was just another pol on a high-octane power trip. Senator Arlen Specter derided her "autocratic rule," and even fellow Democrat Harry Reid complained Pelosi "runs that place with an iron hand."

Pelosi has become a throw-back to the days of 'Boss' William Tweed, the man who ran the infamous Tammany Hall political machine in the mid-1800s in New York City.

So as Nancy fretted over her jumbo jet, the price of gasoline kept going up, and up, and up. The day petrol hit $4 a gallon was the tipping point. Newspaper headlines screamed, "$4 FOR GAS" and people stopped driving their SUVs.

Since we can't tame global demand, increasing supply became our main prospect for relief. Problem is, Nancy Pelosi's signature issue is protecting the environment. "We have the planet to save," she grandly proclaims to anyone who is willing to listen.

Clearly, doing nothing was out of the question. So House Democrats put together a bill that would have mandated the Interior Department to conduct yearly leases in the National Petroleum Reserve. Pelosi failed to explain, we should mention, that those wells had mostly gone dry.

Last week Pelosi scheduled a vote for the Democratic proposal under the so-called "suspension of the rules."

Normally, suspension of the rules is used to pass non-controversial bills to celebrate National Watermelon Month or to congratulate the Pascagoula State Girls' Softball Team for winning its seventh consecutive championship. But suspension of the rules, which forbids amendments, is not supposed to be used to muzzle political debate.

So faced with Pelosi's take-it-or-leave-it proposition, House Republicans decided to throw down the gauntlet. Joined by a number of Blue Dog Democrats, the Republicans refused to grant the bill the necessary two-thirds majority.

This past Friday morning Speaker Pelosi readied to pound the closing gavel. That would send the Congress home for a five-week vacation without passing any legislation to address the energy crisis.

But the Gang of 50 — all Republicans — planned to take advantage of the long-standing rule that allows any member of the House to speak for five minutes on any topic at the end of each legislative day.

Boss Tweed Pelosi would have none of that — after all, it smacks of unfettered Freedom of Speech. So she hastily pushed through an adjournment motion.

But Representatives Tom Price and Mike Pence would not be deterred. So as San Fran Nan ordered the lights doused, the press section closed, and the mics turned off, congressman after congressman stood up to present their vision of the future.

Fortunately, the acoustics in the House chamber ring true, and the absence of sound equipment proved no impediment. Soon the public gallery began to fill as ordinary citizens wandering through realized history was in the making.

In desperation Pelosi resorted to removing the "official" water cups from the room — maybe the renegades would be silenced once their throats ran dry. But the statements continued. With each impassioned testimony, persons in the gallery began to chant, "Vote! Vote! Vote!"

Five hours later, around 5pm, the soliloquies came to an end. By then, many Democrats were sipping rum-and-cokes on their flights home, ready to brag to the tree-huggers how they had protected the pristine Outer Continental Shelf from the wayward intrusions of the drillers.

But Nancy Pelosi's high-handed attempt to still the Congressional debate had ignominiously failed. Which raises the question, Is this the beginning of the end for the Honorable Speaker's imperial reign?

WE NEED TO HIT THEM HARD WITH OUR LETTERS. LET THEM SQIRM PUBLICALLY....... I just sent the Madam Speaker the following letter along with my Congressman Dennis Moore.

We need leadership in America that listens what we need as a country.

Please! as distasteful as it might be, send the Madem Speaker and your elected official an email and tell them how you feel. Flood Washington's email servers and tell them to come back on Monday Morning to deal with Energy and the High Paying Good Jobs Drilling creates for our fellow Americans.

Dear Speaker Pelosi,

Attached is a letter sent to my Congressman Dennis Moore. Congress needs to come back to Washington Next Monday and start dealing with the Energy crisis in a Bipartisan manner instead of the grandstanding that has taken place when you turned the lights and camara's off last week. This is America and we all are acting like its a third world country.

We need to grow Jobs and that can only be done by changing our Can't Do additude to a Can Do additude. We need domestic drilling in the US and Coastal Waters and in ANWR. Drilling creates Jobs for Americans. High Paying Jobs! Building Nuclear Power Plants creat Jobs! High Paying Jobs.

What do you and the rest of the congress not understand about supporting the creation of Jobs and security for America?

Please deal with the issues that effect Jobs, Security and the future growth of our Nation.

Best Regards, XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Congressman Dennis Moore
1727 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Congressman Moore,

Thank you for your August 6th, 2008 update from Washington, regarding the need to deal with the energy issue. I find the message very shallow when Congress could have take the necessary steps to continue the dialog and debate on Drilling Here and Drilling now for American security at home.

The defining moment occurred last week when Speaker Pelosi, showed America what bipartisan cooperation really meant to her and the democracy we have in America by turning off the CSPAN Camera’s, sound and lights on the minority side of the house. Yes that is a real partisan and a mature show of power by the Speaker of the House! I was greatly disappointed that you have not taken the time to address this grandstanding issue and the energy issues with Kansan's.

There is a real solution to the energy crisis in America today and that is for Congress to take some action in allowing for new domestic drilling, here at home and off the coastal waters of the United States. Even, the Alaskan's want to drill in ANWR! So why not drill there. Think about the new high paying jobs the drilling creates for Americans!

We have gone from a nation of Can Do to a nation of Can’t Do with Gridlock in Washington. Evidently if you’re not a part of the solution to the energy issue then your part of the problem! Perhaps six terms in Congress is enough in Washington?

Creating a windfall profit's tax against the oil companies and giving that money back to the voters is a bad idea. Everything were hearing from the Democratic Party is tax and more tax! And then were going to give you this $1,000.00 rebate from the windfall tax. Well as a shareholder of Exxon-Mobil since 1985, I find that message troubling as Barack Obama's plan to play Robin Hood with the American taxpayer is dead wrong. Windfall Profit taxes will hurt the Oil companies and hurt their stockholders who are voters in the 2008 election. Frankly more taxes do not create more new Jobs. All more taxes do is to drive jobs away from the USA.

You letter stated that you wanted bipartisan cooperation between the parties, If that's really true you need to tell speaker Pelosi loud and clear that congress needs to return to Washington next Monday. Americans want to see a Congress that is working in Washington, instead taking a FIVE WEEK VACATION.

Best Regards,

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