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September 09, 2005
Respect Her Authoritah!
Via Matt, Jonah Goldberg's making some very, very strange points:
I feel a bit sorry for liberals when it comes to Nancy Pelosi. I think among leading Democrats of the last decade or so, she inspires the least respect from her ideological enemies, and deservedly so.
Oh dear God. This coming from a guy whose party is led by a soon-to-be-indicted exterminator, a partially-evolved wrestling coach, and a weak-willed surgeon who conducted a psychic telediagnosis of a comatose political prop that turned out to be wrong. Some Democrats may respect DeLay's ruthlessness, but thinking the majority leader is a political criminal doesn't strike me as the sort of respect Goldberg's talking about. So far as I know, nobody thinks Hastert is anything but an animatronic apparatchik, and I can't think of anyone in contemporary politics who engenders less respect than Frist.
As it happens, all the Democrats I know are quite pleased with Pelosi. I wish she'd give up doing those post-SOTU speeches, but as a party leader and legislative tactician, I've been very impressed with her performance. And that's coming from someone who supported Harold Ford's quixotic play for the post. Meanwhile, in Corner-land, only Jonah Goldberg could possibly pity liberals for the psychic toll Jonah Goldberg's poor opinion of Pelosi must exact. That's a truly heroic level of self-regard. So far as I'm concerned, animus from Tom DeLay and hostility from right-wing rags are a hell of an endorsement for Pelosi's job performance.
September 9, 2005 in Democrats | Permalink
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» The Leaders of Your Republican Government from Bloodless Coup
In the Ezra vs. Jonah argument over whether or not Nancy Pelosi is going a good job as the Democractic leader in the US House, I am (unsurprisingly) with Ezra, particularly given his description of the GOP congressional leadership as:... [Read More]
Tracked on Sep 10, 2005 12:24:01 PM
» The Leaders of Your Republican Government from Bloodless Coup
In the Ezra vs. Jonah argument over whether or not Nancy Pelosi is going a good job as the Democractic leader in the US House, I am (unsurprisingly) with Ezra, particularly given his description of the GOP congressional leadership as:... [Read More]
Tracked on Sep 10, 2005 12:26:10 PM
Comments
Ez --
My man.
This is much better.
More of this, please.
Woof.
Posted by: Jim Madison's Dog | Sep 9, 2005 12:59:12 PM
I too was supportive of Ford's push for the leadership, but I am disappointed in his attempt to play GOPer Lite. Pelosi RoX!
Posted by: stumpy | Sep 9, 2005 1:01:27 PM
My complaint with Pelosi is that she, on the whole, is far too polite, as a reflection both of her political upbringing and liberal beliefs.
San Francisco has lots of internal wars and struggles within the Dem. party, but no effective Repub. opposition, and this shows in her behavior. The SF wars are power-bloc struggles, largely behind the scenes, and couched publicly in pretty mild terms.
She is an old-school liberal in the west coast tradition. In this environment, liberals just don't do red-meat attacks on their opponents. Even the two best liberal voices of the last generations (Ted Kennedy and Paul Wellstone) are mild in comparison to the average Republican attack dog.
Why is it that liberals don't do hormone-stimulating attacks on the conservatives nearly as well as the conservative opposition does?
This expressed anger/outrage deficiency of the Dems seems to leave progressives partly disarmed in a media environment of one-sentence attacks and one paragraph analysis.
Posted by: JimPortlandOR | Sep 9, 2005 1:01:46 PM
I can't believe that any of you believe that the problem with the Democrats is that they are mild mannered while the Republicans are vicious. If you fairly and honestly consider all the ad hominem attacks made by Democratic politicians and spokesmen (like Dr. Dean) against President Bush and Vice President Cheney over the past couple of years, I don't think you can honestly say that the Democrats have been pulling their punches. This is a myth that, frankly, is not helping you. On the other hand, maybe it's only spin and in your private discussions you acknowledge the reality, I don't know.
Posted by: DBL | Sep 9, 2005 1:07:58 PM
This criticism coming from that yellow-belly chickenhawk who said that victims inside the Superdome should grow gills??
Ezra, isn't it about time to stop taking this weasely, hypocritical, opportunistic, Bush-enabling idiot seriously?
Posted by: backspace | Sep 9, 2005 1:18:00 PM
Ezra, isn't it about time to stop taking this weasely, hypocritical, opportunistic, Bush-enabling idiot seriously?
Then what would he have to blog about? I can't keep up a daily pace of blogging multiple entries a day, but if you're a liberal politics blogger, it's good to know that if you ever hit a dry spell, you can head over to The Corner or Townhall.com and find some outrageous, lunatic material that you can comment on.
Posted by: Constantine | Sep 9, 2005 1:44:35 PM
DBL, the difference of course being that there was plenty of public AND prive scold from the Democratic party regarding Deans remarks.
And while no organization seems to be measuring the total amount of bomb throwing from each side, oh yes, we're quiet confident that the scales tip comfortably toward the Republicans side.
Posted by: Adrock | Sep 9, 2005 1:46:28 PM
Then what would he have to blog about?
With all of the material the administration provides I'm already close to idiocy overload. Spending anytime at the Corner and my cup spilleth over.
Posted by: backspace | Sep 9, 2005 1:57:47 PM
I like Pelosi well enough, but I've come to believe that the "they hate us, so we must be doing something right" school of thought is false. The most effective political attacks are ones that are 1) on issues where the stakes are high enough to justify playing hardball. If you attack over issues which don't substantially affect people's lives, or which ordinary americans don't care about, it makes you look petty and out of touch. 2) criticisms which your political opponents know, in their heart of hearts, are right. Or at least which your political opponents fear *might* be right.
Whether or not your opponents respect you in part depends on the quality of your opponents. For example, Republicans *should* respect Gore & Krugman , at least on a policy level. The fact that they don't reflects badly on them, not Gore or Krugman.
The main Republican case is "We are (Militarily, Financially, "Traditional Culture"-ally) Strong and They are (Militarily, Financially, "Traditional Culture"-ally) Weak". So part of Democrats winning is reassuring people about their strength. Caving on core values does not demonstrate strength. But nether necessarily do strong and unyielding attacks against Republicans. What reasures people is confidence and self-assurance, and part of demonstrating self-confidence is being generous to the motives and ideas of even your political adversaries (note: "Being generous" does *not* mean caving on core principles)
Whether Pelosi has done a good job of projecting stength and confidence, along with the core Democratic value of caring for all people, I don't really know.
Posted by: roublen | Sep 9, 2005 1:57:59 PM
"What reasures people is confidence and self-assurance, and part of demonstrating self-confidence is being generous to the motives and ideas of even your political adversaries"
Cripes. Generous as to the motives of Bush, Rove, Delay?
Sorry. Ain't in me.
Pelosi is fine. A very tough job, I am not sure what a Democratic congressman can run on in these circumstances, what they can offer their constituents. She has maintained as much discipline as possible. A better job than Reid.
Posted by: bob mcmanus | Sep 9, 2005 2:22:03 PM
Unfortunately, Lieberman is in the same category as Frist. Not alone, but one of the boys.
peace
Posted by: bruce in oz | Sep 9, 2005 4:37:39 PM
"and I can't think of anyone in contemporary politics who engenders less respect than Frist."
Santorum?
Posted by: gmoke | Sep 9, 2005 7:12:43 PM
to quote cyrano de bergerac, from the play by edmond rostand:
"a man is not only known by his friends, but by him enemies."
that is, iirc.
that applies to any woman, especially from pelosi, altho goldberg is a cog in the bushite support machine.
Posted by: harry near indy | Sep 9, 2005 8:25:53 PM
"all the Democrats I know are quite pleased with Pelosi"
Well then you must not know very many Democrats, at least not any who aren't just Democrats in name only. I'm a Californian (as is Pelosi) and a Democrat, and I'm not in the least pleased with her. I think she's a terribly corrupt and dishonest individual. She's married to a big time corporate investment banker, and her primary goal is to maintain and defend corporate profits. She's been the Democratic leader in the House for several years now, and she hasn't done anything at all except try to get as much corporate pork as she can. Like Kennedy, Clinton, Kerry and the rest of them she mouths a lot of liberal platitudes, but if you follow the money you'll find she's as corporate and right-wing as the rest of them. Take a closer look at her voting record if you want to know where her real priorities are.
Posted by: Mike | Sep 10, 2005 4:10:20 PM
I think she's a terribly corrupt and dishonest individual.
Like Kennedy, Clinton, Kerry and the rest of them she mouths a lot of liberal platitudes, but if you follow the money you'll find she's as corporate and right-wing as the rest of them.
Ouch!!
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