Before Nancy Pelosi There Was Thomas B. Reed

“The best system is to have one party govern and the other party watch.”

The current occupant of the White House, the greatest negotiator ever, the purported author of “The Art of the Deal,” met his match with Nancy Pelosi. Speaker of the House Pelosi learned her deal making from her father, a mayor of Baltimore, and later in the bruising political environment that is San Francisco. She has the current President so flustered that the best he can come up with for a denigrating nickname is an ineffectual “Nancy.” Pelosi, in turn, said that the border wall, “is like a manhood thing for him — as if manhood would ever be associated with him.”

The Speaker’s power that Nancy Pelosi is exploiting goes back more than a century when another powerful politician wielded the gavel. Thomas B. Reed was Speaker of the House from 1889-1891 and again from 1895-1899.

Continue reading “Before Nancy Pelosi There Was Thomas B. Reed”

Sulking Republicans

Nancy Pelosi demonstrated how to bait the current occupant of the White House

Republicans, that Grand Old Party: the party that strongly believes in personal responsibility; that fetishizes John Galt; that legislates work requirement for SNAP – aka food stamp – recipients; believes that if you don’t work, you shouldn’t eat; that thinks you shouldn’t have to pay for someone else’s medical care; that claims to be working for the American people – yes that Republican Party.

Former and soon-to-be-next House Speaker Nancy Pelosi demonstrated how to bait the current occupant of the White House when she declared he did not have the votes to fund his border wall. What makes her so sure? Maybe it’s because lame-duck Republican representatives who lost their seats in the 2018 election are not bothering to show up for Congressional votes. They apparently have decided they’re not going to work for the remainder of their terms.

No doubt they are still cashing their paychecks, however, and utilizing their taxpayer-funded health coverage.