Posted on 02/11/2009 4:27:35 PM PST by Sub-Driver
Did Reid roll Pelosi?
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid played a little high-stakes chicken with each other at the tail end of Wednesday’s shotgun stimulus talks.
It’s not clear who won – or who blinked.
According to a half dozen Congressional aides and members, Reid went before the cameras Wednesday to announce a stimulus deal before Pelosi had agreed on all the details of school construction financing.
“It’s ruffled feathers, big time,” said a House Democrat speaking on condition of anonymity. “The speaker went through the roof.”
Added one House Democratic aide: “He tried to roll her and she knew it.”
A few minutes after Reid announced the deal, Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) convened a public meeting of the House-Senate conference committee.
It was supposed to be a glorified photo op. But there were no House Democrats in the room – and Inouye hastily announced the meeting would be scrapped pending a Pelosi “briefing” of members on the details.
The problem, according to people familiar with the situation, was that Pelosi hadn’t completely signed off on the Senate’s approach to restoring some of the $21 billion in school construction funding. House Democrats are pushing to have school-repair funding listed as a recurring expense; Senate Republicans want such an allocation to be a one-time-only deal.
The approach adopted by the Senate still infuriates many members of her caucus, and Pelosi had yet to fully make her case to dissenters, a source told Politico.
The result: Pelosi summoned Reid to her office – her turf – to hash out unspecified modifications to the package prior to a 5:15 re-convening of the conference committee.
People close to Pelosi painted a different picture – one that portrays Reid as the one being rolled. Pelosi, they say, strategically permitted Reid to make his announcement – and then held up her approval to extract a slightly better deal.
Contradicting other sources who said that Pelosi had been blindsided, a House Democratic aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that Reid had placed a “head’s up” phone call to Pelosi before announcing the deal.
Whatever the real story, Pelosi’s members were more than a little bewildered and headed into Wednesday’s night’s negotiation singing their Kumbayas through gritted teeth.
“[Senate Democrats] don’t know everything that’s in the bill,” said a laughing Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Ways and Committee. “So I’m afraid to go to that damned conference.”
Even Senate Democrats seemed a little flummoxed. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), briefing reporters after the Reid presser, stopped short of actually saying he was 100 percent sure a deal had been cut.
"There was general agreement," he said. "It doesn't mean everything is locked in yet. But if we didn't have an agreement, then there wouldn't have been a news conference."
Thank you. I will never understand how the media, even the few supposedly on “our” side, can take things like this so lightly. You’d almost believe that they’re not Americans and have no stake in the outcomes and the direction of the nation. Except for the fact that the media wing of the rat party does such a heroic job of helping to advance marxism. Of course, they’re American only in the sense of the accident of birth.
My thoughts exactly...theater.
Who gives a rats a$$. It is the people who are too dumb to know these two screwed them.
The treachery of the ruling elite is beyond question.
Rangel laughs about a $ 800 billion dollar bill.
Nelson saying, well we must have an agreement, because we had a news conference.
And these are the people we are supposed to trust to get it right?
Which, by Biden’s math, has a 30% chance of being wrong.
Please excuse me while my head explodes.
Sure, we believe this. Smokescreen for Collins and Traitor to make it look like they got something.
Pray for America
Hear, hear!
I know exactly what you mean. I don't think I have any fight left in me. It's hard to fight a losing battle and the picture is becoming crystal clear. It's too late. If you look at what happened with the attempted financial crisis on Sept. 15 that almost crashed the WORLD economy, this thing is far bigger than any of us realize. It's probably time to accept it for what it is, or get out, enjoy a peaceful life elsewhere. It was a beautiful ride while it lasted.
Factor in the distinct possibility that we have already been attacked...
no, push infighting.
Couldn’t agree more.
I do worry that we have been stripped of any power to oppose the communist/socialist tilt. The pubbies cannot corral a 41 vote opposition to any of this. With control of the census, they may actually get a veto proof communist state.
you’re using the term ‘woman’ pretty damned loosely. Though I do think ‘she’ cannot understand normal thinking.
A little too much emphasis on egos on that Hill, especially if they are dealing with the “worst economic crisis since the ‘30’s”
In these days, the Lord is stripping away the things that most put their faith, in order that they will see Him and His Truth clearly....and be without excuse.
I am grateful for His longsuffering and patience to call out those who have yet to come.
Last call....
Can’t tell who is more gross having “roll over you”!
You are so right. These times are really showing us where our eyes must look and where our faith must be.
Pelosi can't blink, so it wasn't her.
So true and recently my prayers have been answered ten fold and wow it was not easy.
Feathers my a&&, those 2 are covered in scales.
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