Heaven Forbid She Governs From The Center
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in General Politics
Liberals aren’t happy with Pelosi because she’s reaching out to moderates?
Instead, some liberal lawmakers say they have begun to feel marginalized by Pelosi and other House leaders, who have so far played down some of the liberal concerns and charted a course toward the political middle. They have begun to complain that Pelosi has overplayed her campaign promise to “govern from the center,” taking special pains to appease moderates while neglecting some long-standing bullet points on the liberal to-do list.“People are saying, ‘When will it be our turn?’” said liberal Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.). “I just hope the pendulum starts to swing where there’s more attention, consultation, respect and understanding around our issues.”
Here’s the deal. It’s been a little over three months now and Pelosi is trying to set up the 2008 presidential candidates. In other words, she’s trying to change the tone in Washington to benefit the nation and her party. If liberal lawmakers have a problem with that they can’t see the forest for the trees.
Want more evidence they really can’t help themselves?
In one instance last month, liberals mounted a vigorous campaign to modify the $124 billion wartime spending bill to require the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq by Christmas. But Democratic leaders opted for a more moderate plan, coupling a longer withdrawal timeline with a series of waivers to allow the president to circumvent some new requirements. The approach frustrated many liberals, who blocked the bill’s passage for a day before grudgingly agreeing that passing any withdrawal timeline was better than handing the Republicans a victory.
Yeah….that would have been likely. Home by Christmas. How easy would that have been to veto and make Dems look unrealistic?
The era of partisan politics is waning because DeLay was so hyper-partisan it turned everybody against him.
Pelosi has taken note. The Progressive Caucus needs to as well.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 11th, 2007 and is filed under General Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
April 11th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Conservatives aren’t happy with Pelosi because she’s reaching out to Iran.
April 11th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
Actually, I dispute that.
Why? See here.
But thanks. You’ve given me the topic for a new post.