Reaching Across The Aisle
by digby
… with your feet planted firmly on your own side.
I am not going to criticize Nancy Pelosi for talking about bipartisanship and reaching across the aisle because, you know, that’s politics. It would be churlishly Republican not to say such things in victory.
But actions speak louder than words and I stand by my earlier admonition to the new Democratic majority:
The chattering classes are all abuzz with the notion that now is the time to bind up the nation’s wounds and work across the aisle. (I can’t help but wonder why they didn’t see the need for such rapproachment during the last decade of slash and burn GOP partisanship.) This pattern is well documented. The Republicans will continue to drain the treasury and play out their “movement” experiments and then have the Democrats step up and clean up the messes they make until this is stopped.
We are confronting some very serious problems right now, only one of which is terrorism. The Republicans have destroyed our international reputation at the very time when we need global cooperation. And they have driven the nation itself into the ditch dividing the country and blaming everyone but themselves for their failures.
The Democrats have to be the “grown-ups” yes. And one of the unpleasant tasks will be figuring out what went wrong, putting safeguards in place so the same things don’t happen again and making people take responsibility for their actions. That is what adults do. Letting bygones be bygones and simply blathering on about how we all need to put the unpleasantness behind us and get along will not win the respect of the American people nor will it fix the problems this nation faces. (That, after all, is the indulgent mommy model that the Republicans have been using as a club with which to beat us over the head for the last 30 years. No more.)
Now, politicians can make speeches about bipartisanship and sing kumbaaya all they want. I’m sure it is a very soothing tune and one that is necessary. But the Democratic party had best not forget that the actions a Democratic majority takes in the next two years will determine if the American people can trust them to defend the nation and fix the mess going forward. It’s very hard to see how that will happen if they capitulate to John Cornyn’s whimpering about how mean and nasty they are.
The polls show that the American people are behind them and the world is behind them. For the good of the party, the good of the country and the good of the planet, they just have to tough out the criticism they will receive from the mincing GOP courtiers in the press and the blubbering, wailing Republicans, and Do. The. Right. Thing.
None of that means that there isn’t ample room for legislation on which we can all agree. The door should always be open to those who want to negotiate and compromise. But unless the last decade of Republican mendacity, malfeasance and corruption is exposed, the lesson republicans will take from this is that they can promise everything, do anything and the only repurcussions will a couple of years out of power when they can blame the Democrats for their failures. To not require some sort of accountability for this is a very serious moral hazard.
I could be wrong, but the first female Speaker of the House doesn’t sound like an indulgent mommy who is inclined to so such things:
STAHL: (Voiceover) Christine, the second oldest of four daughters and one son, says her mother was the disciplinarian and drill sergeant in the family then, as she is in Congress now.
Ms. PELOSI: So we were always expected to make sure that our homework was done and that we were prepared for what we did. She would always say, “Proper preparation prevents poor performance.”
[…]
STAHL: (Voiceover) …and a grandmother of five.
When I asked your daughter Christine how you “rule,” she said you were motherly.
Rep. PELOSI: I guess it depends on your definition of motherly. If motherly means we’re going to have order in the house, yes.
STAHL: That’s motherly.
STAHL: (Voiceover) Well, she’s certainly brought order to the Democrats. She has insisted on no more bickering in public and just saying no to nearly everything that comes out of the Bush White House. In other words, party discipline, kind of like the Republicans do it. As a result, Democrats now vote together more often than they have since Eisenhower was president. How has someone so clearly not one of the boys managed to keep them in line? Well, one way is money.
[…]
STAHL: (Voiceover) She has personally raised more than $100 million, second only to Bill and Hillary Clinton, which she dispenses generously to her colleagues. Another way she rules is through good, old-fashioned hardball.
People say Nancy Pelosi is tough as nails.
Rep. PELOSI: I’m very strong. I don’t know tough, but…
STAHL: Every time I ask you about it, you retreat into, `Oh, no, I’m a mother, I’m a grandmother.’
Rep. PELOSI: No.
STAHL: You are tough. You have to–I mean, it goes without saying.
Rep. PELOSI: I’m tough.
STAHL: You got there. You did it.
Yes she did.
I’m a little bit surprised that there hasn’t been more hoopla about Pelosi breaking the big glass ceiling. (Maybe it will happen when she actually takes her place.) She’s going to be third in line to the presidency, the most powerful elected woman in American history. It’s a big deal — another barrier down.
I don’t think this person is going to be hampered in the exercize of leadership by the lack of a proper Republican male organ. She has metaphorical “balls” (or ovaries) the size of cantaloupes. I wouldn’t underestimate her.
They are going to continue to demonize her as some sort of deranged succubus, but they’d better be careful. Lot’s of women are watching and they aren’t going to like her character being assassinated with thinly veiled attacks on female inadequacy or gay insinuations or any of the other usual rightwing tricks. Criticism is fine but this woman has achieved something substantial and I doubt women are going to be happy to see her demeaned by some lowlife fratboy punk with nasty, cheap shots.
Don’t play the sexism card, fellas (and Ann Coulter.) At least half of the electorate sees these tired put-downs as an unpleasant reminder of the ex-boyfriend, boss or husband they’d still like to slap upside the head and there are plenty of men who cringe with embarrassment when they hear them. Remember, “proper preparation prevents poor performance.”
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