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Stimulus battle make or break moment for Pelosi
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 2/4/9 | Carla Marinucci

Posted on 02/04/2009 9:16:00 PM PST by SmithL

The drama over President Obama's pricey stimulus package has put House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at center stage. And when the curtain comes down on the final plan, the reviews may come to this: Did she play the uniter or the divider?

Pelosi, who has consistently talked about working across the aisle, led the charge last week as the initial $819 billion version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act emerged from the House - approved without a single Republican vote.

And Republicans managed what some had thought impossible: a show of unity and steely resistance to the speaker little more than a week after the popular Democratic president took the oath of office.

Fired up by a Rush Limbaugh-led charge against what they called a "Pelosi-Reid" pork-laden package, GOP leaders took to the airwaves and the blogs to lambaste items such as $335 million in funding for education against sexually transmitted diseases and a makeover of the National Mall. They talked up the need for more tax relief, which they said would bolster the economy and howled that they were shut out of the process.

"The Republicans who seemed so lost and so in disarray all of a sudden grasped the upper hand," says Hoover Institution research fellow Bill Whalen. "They've managed to change the focus from what the package will do to what's in the package - waste and pork."

With new Gallup polls showing that only 38 percent of Americans support the plan without major changes - and nearly 80 percent believe the current plan will not stimulate the economy enough - it now appears the president "is slowly losing the high ground on this," he said.

"Speaker Pelosi lost round one in the message war,"

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Government; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: 0bama; bailout; pelosi; stimulus
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1 posted on 02/04/2009 9:16:00 PM PST by SmithL
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To: SmithL

Personally, I vote for “break”.


2 posted on 02/04/2009 9:17:27 PM PST by bergmeid (Watchin' Obrother self-destruct)
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To: SmithL
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>SNAP>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
3 posted on 02/04/2009 9:17:32 PM PST by Danae (Amerikan Unity My Ass)
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To: bergmeid

Followed up with a very public nervous breakdown would satisfy me.


4 posted on 02/04/2009 9:18:10 PM PST by TheOgre
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To: SmithL
Hurry before we lose another 500 million jobs!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=x8hMJVXt09E

 

5 posted on 02/04/2009 9:21:58 PM PST by txroadkill (It's the beginning of Feb.- 500 million of the 300million Americans just lost their jobs)
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To: SmithL

Conservatives ALWAYS have TRUTH on our side. If we seem to be losing any argument, simply go back and study the premise. If the premise of the argument is honest and truth is told, we will ALWAYS win.

Facts are Kryptonite to Leftists. Turns ‘em to dust every time.


6 posted on 02/04/2009 9:23:47 PM PST by The Spirit Of Allegiance (Public Employees: Honor Your Oaths! Defend the Constitution from Enemies--Foreign and Domestic!)
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To: SmithL
Anyone who IN TWO SEPARATE PUBLIC SPEECHS, said that "500,000,000 Americans lose their jobs each month," is taking way too much hormone replacement medication to competently work in a McDonalds for two hours. Maybe her massive use of Botox is also effecting her exceedingly limited brain.

This mental defective belongs in a supervised group home, not preparing bizarre $819 billion shopping lists.


7 posted on 02/04/2009 9:25:31 PM PST by FormerACLUmember
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To: SmithL

What happened to that quote of hers, made in the middle of the $140 oil ramp, about drilling offshore (now totally forgotten, of course) “Can we drill your brains?”

What would we find in yours, Nancy dear?


8 posted on 02/04/2009 9:29:37 PM PST by Attention Surplus Disorder (Mr. Bernanke, have you started working on your book about the second GREATER depression?")
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To: txroadkill
Here' a good one. Here.
9 posted on 02/04/2009 9:30:39 PM PST by BigFinn (isa 32:8 But the liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand.)
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To: SmithL
"She misread the election results. They were overwhelming for Barack Obama, but Congress is still languishing with a 27 percent approval rating."

Are the approval ratings for Congress that high now? I thought they were somewhere in the teens.

10 posted on 02/04/2009 9:31:01 PM PST by BAW (Social Security needs a bailout.)
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To: SmithL

How can something already broken, break?


11 posted on 02/04/2009 9:31:32 PM PST by razorback-bert (Save the planet...it is the only known one with beer!)
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To: SmithL
"At this stage, with the economy in a ditch, action matters," says Peter Ragone, a Democratic strategist from San Francisco.

Wishful thinking. The public is beginning to believe more and more that doing nothing is better than this massive pork spending bill.

12 posted on 02/04/2009 9:33:24 PM PST by hsalaw ("Change is not a destination; hope is not a strategy.")
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To: SmithL

“Pelosi, who has consistently talked about working across the aisle.....etc.....
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
If I interpret this correctly, the best way for me to make FRIENDS with my new neighbors is to have a party in ‘their’ honor and not invite them.

I just wonder what we have done to ‘p’ off God so as to give us a chain of succession to read OBAMA, BIDEN, PELOSI, H. CLINTON.

If one ‘dummy’ manages to fall, there is a ‘worse’ one ready to take over and, sad to say, the last one looks to be the ‘best’ of a bad lot.


13 posted on 02/04/2009 9:36:13 PM PST by xrmusn
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To: SmithL
A hint that they are on the verge of an internal blow up...
fratricide, or something.

Note how it is "Obama's pricey stimulus package"
and how the tiff "...has put House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at center stage."
Regardless of the fact that it was SFNan and her cronies who drafted the original monstrosity and Obamassiah who has put his failing credit on the line to get it passed...probably with little concept of what is in either Senate or House bills.

Note as well, and of course, that they all insist that if something (expensive) isn't done NOW, we are all DOOMED.

It is to much to hope that they are already trying to eat each other's liver...but the omens are there.

14 posted on 02/04/2009 9:37:23 PM PST by norton
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To: SmithL
Pelosi is becoming, by the day, one of the Dems WEAKEST actors.

I predict she will eventually be tossed under the bus by her own constituency.

15 posted on 02/04/2009 9:38:04 PM PST by VideoDoctor
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To: SmithL
...the mood among Democrats is: "If we won this election, why shouldn't we get some stuff?"

That would explain the union payoffs, the relief for the movie industry, the funding for ACORN...

...says Peter Ragone, a Democratic strategist from San Francisco... "And getting something done will carry the day. Anyone who's viewed as an obstructionist in this environment is going to pay a steep price - and the Republicans are really playing with fire by coming off as obstructionist."

Well, Peter, if that's the case, why don't you just pass the bill and shut up? The Dems have a majority in the House, the Senate, and hold the White House. If the Republicans are only hurting themselves here, why not pass the bill, take the credit, and let the Republicans suffer?

The reason is that he's lying. The Dems are doing everything they possibly can to hold a position of leadership without taking the responsibility for leading. All of the perks, none of the risk. It doesn't work that way.

16 posted on 02/04/2009 9:39:20 PM PST by Billthedrill
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To: BigFinn
The one thing that can always be said about Democrats is that they always manage to prove that any idiot can get elected in the US.
17 posted on 02/04/2009 9:50:30 PM PST by txroadkill (It's the beginning of Feb.- 500 million of the 300million Americans just lost their jobs)
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To: Billthedrill
Well said.

If the Dems keep pounding this “vote or with us or else” drum...it really could cause a backdraft.

They have votes...just do it and don't try to get any Repubs on board. Take the heat when it fails or the glory when it succeeds (not likely).

The media coverage about how there “WASN'T ONE REPUB VOTE IN THE HOUSE” is amusing. It wasn't needed. Why not report it as...”Dems Trounce Pubs And Save The Country With Stimulus”.? (Feel free to call me a cynic.)

18 posted on 02/04/2009 9:55:03 PM PST by berdie (Philosophies of the school room in one generation will reflect the government philosophy of the next)
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To: SmithL

Gees, they can’t say it’s Bushes fault any longer so now they are saying that Rush is totally at fault for the Republicans not voting for the package.


19 posted on 02/04/2009 9:59:05 PM PST by acoulterfan
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To: Billthedrill

...says Peter Ragone, a Democratic strategist from San Francisco... “And getting something done will carry the day. Anyone who’s viewed as an obstructionist in this environment is going to pay a steep price - and the Republicans are really playing with fire by coming off as obstructionist.”

The Dems have seen the poll numbers and they know they are losing the debate. What the Dems don’t understand is that being obstuctionist about a PORK LADEN SPENDING BILL is a GOOD THING for the COUNTRY! Hence the polls showing the public losing support for the bill.

The Dems are so out of touch with the majority of Americans that they think it is obstructionist because it hurts their special interest groups. Obama said if you put lipstick on a PIG, it is still a PIG. This PORK SPENDING BILL is a PIG and no amount of lipstick will save it. If Obama and the Dems keep pushing it, Obama’s approval will be under 50% and the Congressional Dems will be in single digits by the end of the month.


20 posted on 02/04/2009 10:08:06 PM PST by SDShack
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