Pelosi To House GOP: Be Thankful For What You Have

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a message for House Republicans who think they weren't given enough time to debate or amend the stimulus package that moved through Congress over an eight-day period earlier this session: You could have had much less.

"To tell you the truth, I could have fast-tracked this much faster," Pelosi, a California Democrat, told a group of reporters and progressive writers at a breakfast gathering Tuesday.

Pelosi had been asked about an anonymous White House aide's suggestion that the administration didn't approve of the speed with which the Speaker handled the package.

"Let me get this straight," she said. "You're the president of the United States; you have a recovery package that you want done by the president's break; we get that done -- and we 'fast tracked it over the president's objections'? It couldn't be farther from the truth."

Pelosi also denied assertions that she has instructed the White House not to talk to her members without going through her first. She said she told the administration: "Talk to the members. Talk to the chairmen. Talk to the different caucuses. They have a lot of ideas."

She rejected the notion that she keeps a grudge list of folks who have crossed her, saying that every day is a new day. "They're saying I keep a list of members. It couldn't be farther from the truth. My commitment is to all of my members," she said. "I don't have any list."

Republican objections that they were not included and didn't approve of the process through which the stimulus was passed, said Pelosi, only mask ideological differences that they had with the bill. "We gave them the regular order," said Pelosi. "We were not going to go backward and adopt their economic failed policies and that's what they're upset about."

Comments

[Eres]

I agree Nancy. Republicans should be happy that we haven't revoked their First Amendment rights, rounded them up and shipped all their traitorous a**es to Gitmo for a little game of water board.

[Zen0469]

Oh my ............... What a shock that would be for all these sniveling, whining little Go Pee-er's.

[Fernando]

The GOP needs to realize they LOST THE LAST ELECTION... BIG TIME and while they have every right to debate, the president is entitled to his agenda. The GOP should also remember that the Dems are treating them a heck of a lot better then they treated the Dems when they were in power.

I guess is easier for them to pretend the last eight years never happened.

[lacrossedadof2]

His agenda???? You mean where he keeps taking more and more money from people he considers rich? In order to pay for people who refuse to live up to their responsebility and take care of their own.

[j0em0mma]

LOL, you boys got caught stealing from America, and are probably going to lose your party for it, if not just all your ill-gotten gains. I have exactly zero sympathy for you, and wouldn't mind if I never had to watch another tax-cut fetishest do "his Thing"...

[littleblackcat]

I have to agree absolutely with Ms. Pelosi on this point. If the repus had had anything new to offer, even a few new ideas, those ideas would have been heard. Since all the repubs do is whine and yell about tax cuts and "fiscal conservatism" (about which they have proven they know nothing) there was no point at all in wasting time listening to the same old bulls**t.
Tax cuts do NOT create jobs, and the shrub administration proved that with astonishing clarity. Nor do the repus stop to think about their own whining: they are bi*%#ing about how they are "being left out of the discussions, etc." without once recalling the way THEY blocked ALL suggestions made by Democrats during the bush/cheney empire. Serves them well and truly right, HOLD THAT LINE!! Ms. Pelosi! You go, girl.

[WinterParkMom]

Nancy Pelosi to house gop:

Kiss my Liberal Californian a** and keep walking so the door doesn't hit you on your way out in 2010.

Nancy and Obama have got it going on and I think anyone who says they're at odds is incorrect. She had every right to question the viability and reasoning behind the 50k troops to be left behind in Iraq, but she did not say anything against the President like huffpo and the media made it look. I watched the RM interview and she did not say anything derogatory about the decision.

She's a butt kicking feminist and I so want to be her when I grow up!

[garageguy]

I can't get over how whiney Republicans are being ever since Obama was elected.

During all the stimulus and budget talks, they complain and moan and whine with every word. They seem to think anything that doesn't go their way is not trying to be bipartisan.

I agree, Madam Speaker: if Republicans' ideas of compromise and bipartisanship is to do everything their way then they've got a looooooong 4 years worth oif whining ahead of them.

[fredisfred]

Oh, the way the Repubs are acting it may be more like 8 or 16 years worth of whining.

[GOBsaysCOMEON]

I hated the Republicans while Bush was in office. I like them more now because they are doing what an opposition party is supposed to do, which is stand up for what you believe in even when harms you politically in the short run. I still disagree with the Republicans quite often, but they are showing to be a far superior opposition party than the Democrats were during the Bush years.

Iraq Resolution- 29 Dem Senators voted for it, as did 82 in the House.

Patriot Act- Feingold the ONLY Dem with the guts to vote against. 145 Dems support it in the House.

[trunk65]

And that, gentlemen is what the back of a hand feels like! Now shape up, or the next time it will be a fist.

[LibRS]

ohhhhhhhhhh. you are sooooooooooo scary.
the horror. the horror.

[j0em0mma]

said the ant with the shaking fist

[2sunny]

WAY TO GO! I like your firm & rational statements against their (GOP) whining. You are indeed a thinking leader!!

[MicrowavableJohnnyCakes]

Peolosi could so take Cantor in a fight.

[MadeInAmerica]

All day long.

[fredisfred]

With one hand tied behind her back.

[Mij13]

I like Nancy. Let the Republicans whine all they want. They do themselves no favor letting the nation know they're trying to bring the country down for political reasons.

[superfrog]

I wish the republicans would stop the mudd slinging and start working toward fixing things.

[Vermontah]

Wish away, but don't hold your breath. The republicans (I've stopped capitalizing it too) only know how to sling mudd. That's all they do. Say no. They're not going to work toward fixing things because they're not interested in fixing things. In fact, if "things" were "fixed" they wouldn't have anything to complain about. They're interested in hatred, filthy politics and money, that's all. There have no ideas, even they don't believe their own ideology anymore, so all they can do is, well, sling mudd.

[scooterliberal]

Doh! There go those slavering-authority-worshipping- woman-hating Gay Old Public servants again...I'm really tired of their BS...The only way to deal with these kind of spoiled bullies is to squash them underfoot like the small minded pissants they are.

[hardlyhikin]

Nancy's only mistake that I can see so far is putting ANY tax cuts into the Stimulus Bill. She should've completely shut them out and then let the Rethugs bargain them back in for votes.

[j0em0mma]

It was a campaign promise that armored against the GOP claim that we were raising taxes on everyone. The tax breaks are for middle income, dwarfed by allowing the last set of tax cuts to expire.

[Independent voter]

The election is over. It's time to stop the peurile Repugs/ Rethugs / Yadaya. It isn't helping.

The Repugs/ Rethugs / Yadaya are Americans who have a different point of view. They screwed up big time, but we need to bring them into the fold so that we can move forward as the UNITED States.

Perhaps you don't realize this, but only 32.6% of the eligible voters in this country voted for Obama. That means that 67% of the elgible voters did not support Obama. It may turn out that a few of those 200 million people that did not vote for Obama have ideas that should be listened to.

I don't mean to single you out. It's has come down to the point where every article on this blog is populated with hate and venom for 'the others' and I think that we need to get past that.

I worked as a team leader for the Obama campaign, gave him my votes and my money because I wanted change. Continuing to trash the people in the other party is not change.

[fredisfred]

Sorry, but your statement "67% of the elgible voters did not support Obama" doesn't amount to a hill of beans. What matters is who actually voted, who they voted for, and who won the most electoral votes. Elections have consequences, and if the Repubs aren't interested in joining the process through bipartisanship, that's they're problem. The Dems can listen to their ideas and consider them, but as Pelosi said, "We were not going to go backward and adopt their economic failed policies and that's what they're upset about." And that's the crux of the matter. Obama gave the Repubs a chance to work with him on the Stimulus package, but all the Repubs wanted to do was follow their leader Rush and vote NO.

Repubs - the party of NO. No, we can't. And that's how they'll be remembered years from now, while the Dems will be remembered for rescuing the country from the brink of disaster, courtesy of the Repub's mismanagement.

[Cilantro33309]

Ah, and thus the very identity crisis that is killing the republican party...

To clarify; I personally have experienced by republican friends standing staunchly behind
Bush through nearly his entire 2 terms, voted for him twice, and at the end they threw him under the bus saying he didn't adhere to republican values. So now the republicans are fractured by the extremists who back Limpbaugh and the like, the economic pundits who just want to cut spending any way possible (but by looking at history they've never elected such a president) and the religious thumpers. None really agrees with the other, but HERE'S WHY I COULD NEVER VOTE FOR A CON-ARTIST REPUBLICAN AGAIN: no matter who they elect or what he espouses, each of those groups (see Stimulus Vote) will stand behind anyone with an (R) after his name, regardless what he stands for or who he scr ews to get it.

I say we give the repubs a football team to root for and get them out of politics. They obviously don't understand.

[NOLIESPLEASE]

Tax cuts are for working americans ....it's about time we get some!

[middleoftheroad]

Can Dems please stop crying about how the GOP were not bi partisan...this is your leader...they handed the bill out at one in the morning...NOBODY read the final draft when they voted on it...Please.

[j0em0mma]

You have no clue how policy works, eh? The contents of this bill have been in every committee for weeks and weeks. This is a false argument.

[PocketWatch]

A whole lot of people (read: GOP congress people) said two mutually exclusive things...

THIS BILL CONTAINS ALL THIS PORK! (List usually follws this remark)

and

NOBODY'S READ THIS BILL!

Hmmmmm... never read it, but complain about what's in it, and are specific about it. What's wrong with this picture? Just askin'...

[Laserbeam]

You're talking about the Patriot Act, right?

[Cilantro33309]

Please, you cons don't even bother passing a law...you just do what you want by executive order.

Yeah, I went there.

[TheJibreelaMonsters]

remember whom to lay blame too when the Dems fail

[j0em0mma]

Rush Limbagz? Seriously, though, we're not going to fail, I recommend getting more education... there's going to be a lot of competition in the New America...

[Laserbeam]

Do you think that hby using the word, "whom" we won't notice your misuse of the word, "too"?

[Heartsleeve]

C'mon, Dems... Nancy Pelosi is an embarrassment. She is daddy'd little girl who learned bare-knuckle politics at her daddy's knee, and -- face it -- Barack Obama is about as far away from bare-knuckled democratic politics as a democrat can get.

If he had his choice, she'd have been ousted from her perch as Speaker. Unfortunately for ALL democrats, she couldn't be removed.

But I welcome the coming fight between Barack and the crazy left of center wing of the democratic party. I'm a socual liberal and fiscal moderate, as I believe Barack is. Nancy Pelosi is a self-important wind-bag who will bring us all down if she wrong-headedly has her way.

Barack will prove that the American people elected him -- not Reid and Pelosi -- to guide us thru the mud and murk left behind by George Bush and Co.

She should SIT DOWN and SHUT UP.