Nancy Pelosi: Bobby Rush 'Deserves A Great Deal Of Credit' For Wearing Hoodie On House Floor

WASHINGTON -- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday praised Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) for wearing a hoodie on the House floor in protest of the Trayvon Martin killing in Florida.

"I think that Bobby Rush deserves a great deal of credit for the courage he had to go to the floor in a hoodie knowing that he would be told he was out of order," Pelosi said during her weekly briefing.

Pelosi said Rush knew he was breaking House rules -- lawmakers are prohibited from wearing hats and hoods in the chamber -- but that he made his point before leaving the floor quickly and without being contentious.

"He called attention to a situation in our country that needs to be addressed in a way that a man in a suit and a tie might not be able to do," she said, referring to Rush dressing like Martin was dressed when he was shot by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman, who said Martin looked suspicious. Martin was unarmed.

Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) is planning to give a "friendly, hand-written" note to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) asking him to do a better job of enforcing the House dress code across the board. He told Fox News on Wednesday that some CBC members think Rush was unfairly singled out for his attire, because other members often don't conform to the dress code but aren't escorted out of the chamber like Rush was.

“Whenever rules are not enforced, you create the opportunity for somebody to believe they have been singled out," Cleaver told Fox News. “You see during late night votes, people stand in the back with jeans and no jackets and no ties."

Boehner told reporters Thursday that he believes the rules are implemented fairly.

"Listen, I think the rules are enforced evenly," he said during his weekly press conference. "I've asked members on both sides of the aisle to leave the floor myself. I know the Sergeant At Arms has asked members to leave the floor ... The rules make it clear the members should be in proper business attire."

Asked then why some congresswomen have been allowed to wear hats on the House floor, Boehner said he hadn't seen that happen.

"I've not witnessed that and I think the women members know that that's in violation of the rules," he said.

Pelosi said she doesn't really care about the dress code, as long as lawmakers serve with dignity and participate in conversations relevant to Americans' lives.

"This, I think, falls into the 'fairly irrelevant,'" she said. "I still wonder why women can't have hats on the floor."

Comments

[stymie500r]

07:16 AM on 04/02/2012

Pelosi needs a hoodie.

[the man from man]

09:38 PM on 04/01/2012

Why are the wearing of Kippah's (skullcaps) allowed on the House floor but not the wearing of hoodies? A hat is a hat is a hat!

[Spuds McCorpuck]

09:49 AM on 04/02/2012

The house makes allowances for the observance of religious beliefs.

[Louie Rey]

01:37 PM on 03/30/2012

I didn't realize she was still alive! Can you say pandewring for votes, boys and girls? This is such a blatant exercise in currying favor with the Democrats' base, poor minorities. Just one thing though, this demographic has been voting Democrat for over the last half century and guess what? THEY'RE STILL POOR! You'd think that after all that time they'd come to the realization that maybe they should try something new but, hey, that's exactly where Democrats want them to stay. They want their thought process to be that "Democrats are on our side and they're going to rescue us from poverty! Whoopee!" How long do you have to bang your head against the wall before you notice that nothing's changed?

[gafl3]

12:55 PM on 03/30/2012

to bad it wasn't PELOSI

[PresReagan]

12:38 PM on 03/30/2012

I hope San Francisco wakes up and elects a new person next go around. She is a "career" politician and does not have our country's best interests at heart.

[madupont]

06:28 PM on 03/30/2012

Every politician is a career politician.

[readingandwriting]

12:20 PM on 03/30/2012

Hmm and no one is commenting on WHY she pointed this out and what it signifies about a certain event that has taken place a month ago that should be addressed. just fyi. this is not really all about what she thought about a hoodie and dress codes, she is pointing to T Martin incident, which um, matters.

[madupont]

12:40 PM on 03/30/2012

You bet she knows, which is the sum of my point since Pelosi is a California resident who knows the population figures point to what is happening faster than most whites think about, when I previously posted the status of the Black Panthers there, then and now. You want a general coast to coast uprising, you can get it, if you try. Rush is the man Obama tried to run against in Chicago before he grasped the situation. But,everything gets old, you know; especially white people calling the shots.

[princeperry]

10:57 PM on 03/31/2012

So very well said. You have to satisfy youself wirth nothing, or brith control. Don't go off if I spelled it wrong/






don'tl

[Akrystia]

12:04 PM on 03/30/2012

Suddenly it reaks of hypocrisy in the Capitol...you know who you are, GOTP members

[bb0507]

12:02 PM on 03/30/2012

she's just obama's puppet. obama wanted to defend him but doesn't want to offend any voters that might lean the other way.

[madupont]

12:49 PM on 03/30/2012

Hardly, it is Pelosi and Mary who immediately took Obama aside after he won and sat him down in a quiet living room and poured a pot of tea. It was her advantage to explain to him how things work now that you have become President.

[gulamon]

05:08 PM on 03/30/2012

No. Bo is HER puppet, along with HR.

[trotinboot1]

11:47 AM on 03/30/2012

If Nancy Pelosi takes your side you know you have done something wrong.

[WILLIEMOJORISIN]

11:22 AM on 03/30/2012

Pelosi's jumping on the bandwagon also ?do people have no shame?

[anniesez455]

11:24 AM on 03/30/2012

From the lady that said Bless those owser's? I don't think so..or better yet.."We have to pass it to see what is in it?"...and the Dem fools did just that!

[kimbanyc]

11:29 AM on 03/30/2012

Ghastly Outdated Party

Maureen Dowd

[WILLIEMOJORISIN]

11:42 AM on 03/30/2012

It would be funny,but it isn't.

[madupont]

12:15 PM on 03/30/2012

Listen up, Pelosi as a resident of California recalls the origins of the Panthers warring between their regional territories, as for instance Fillmore residents in San Francisco vs Berkeley Campus,Oakland residents like Huey Newton. As a member of Congress, Bobby Rush has the distinction of having been a member of the Chicago Seven during the worst Democrat Party Convention on record for Police Violence back in the 1960s. I had forgotten how bad it was until I saw the documentary film footage more recently almost 40 years later.Any of you younger than that era don't know what you are talking about. Hint: this is not the Bobby Rush who is a musician. Respec....

[madupont]

06:19 PM on 03/30/2012

Amazing. Not a one called me on this statement. Not only is this not the musician but it is not Bobby Seale who was co-founder with Huey Newton, intellectual par excellence, of the Black Panthers. Now, that Robert Zimmerman has hidden his mentally challenged relative, somebody is going to collect on the reward offered by the Panthers. Would that be enough for a red-stated Republican to turn him in? You betcha: it is the very bottom line of Republicanism,"Show me the Money!" Nobody would be a Republican, if he was not in it for the money!

[wildcardmusic]

10:39 AM on 03/30/2012

What people need to understand about Nancy Pelosi is:

(1) She and her husband are Slum Lords. They own many decrepid apartment buildings and rent them out with little upkeep being done to them.

(2) She and her husband have made a fortune on insider trading of stocks,and she and the Democrats are blocking a law to make it as illegal for politicians to do insider trading as it is for THE REST OF US. She believes she's above us "little people". (Queen Hillary,Queen Nancy,Queen Michelle,...it is always the same delusion!)

(3) Her husband gets LUCRATIVE Government contracts steered to his company,which goes against ethics rules and the law.

(4) She and her husband are highly invested in businesses OVERSEAS and have a lot of money stashed in OVERSEAS Banks to AVOID the taxes that she and the Democrats impose on us. She kisses up to Unions and the unemployed,but then gives jobs to foreign workers. She also promotes Illegal Alien causes.

(5) She asked for and was given a big jet by OBama as Speaker Of The House so she AND HER FAMILY could travel across country at Taxpayer expense. TAXPAYERS also paid her monthly liquor bill of $4000.

(6) The best way to sum up her politics is her quote about OBamacare: "First you have to pass it to find out what's in it"! The Party of "Do as I tell you,but not as I will do myself".

[George Moore]

10:54 AM on 03/30/2012

why are you making a case to so fervently discredit Pelosi?

[SoapboxKing]

11:17 AM on 03/30/2012

Look at his past post. The vast majority of them or unsubstantiated rants.

[madupont]

01:00 PM on 03/30/2012

@George Moore, Because she supported Bobby Rush of the Chicago Seven who walked into Congress as usual except for the hood and read them.

[The Best Opinion]

10:18 AM on 03/30/2012

Pelosi said she doesn't really care about the dress code, as long as lawmakers serve with dignity and participate in conversations relevant to Americans' lives. Typical Pelosi BS, rules are for everyone else!

[madupont]

01:13 PM on 03/30/2012

Yeah, well, she is standing up for Trayvon Martin and you are not. Thus showing you do not respect the laws according to the Constitution but think they are for someone else other than yourself

[gregrocker]

10:09 AM on 03/30/2012

Most Americans don't even know that talk radio and Faux have taken over and ruined their politics. Know-nothing rednecks who were once consigned to lynch mobs, NASCAR tracks and inbreeding were organized into a political juggernaut which took over and completely wrecked the country, toppling the world financial system. Then the black guy hired to clean up their mess is hectored the entire time from the stands.

Other countries have taken notice after Bush and now teach in their schools that the US is an ungovernable failing democracy ruined by the stupidest people on the planet, literally ruiners of civilization.

[India Turner]

12:13 PM on 03/30/2012

Wow, this is an interesting post. Are you from such an "other country?" If so, which one? I resonate with your general idea but can't align with the stereo-typing and insults. Thank you for posting. I think it would be more effective if it left out judgments like redneck, and accusations like inbreeding. Just saying :)

[gregrocker]

01:30 PM on 03/30/2012

Face what has ruined your country, the USA.

[gregrocker]

01:30 PM on 03/30/2012

I was raised amongst rednecks so am speaking from experience.

[madupont]

01:26 PM on 03/30/2012

@gregrocker, Correct! but these volks are just repeating the pattern without a clue that "W" ran up a debt ( highest yet ) to maintain the Afghan war that his father started,continued into the Iraq war and now fomenting same goes for Iran. If you organize a Nation from the basis of maintaining a military set-up then it is logical you go to war, which is why "W" was the chosen candidate by his father to keep the oil-dividends pouring into the Bush family. And all these Red States voters expect after an aging Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann needing John McCain to pay off her outstanding campaign debt(good old John, never changes, just like he was in the Navy, helping the ladies out), and Saint Santorum posing like a defrocked priest is what miracle?

[kennethmw]

10:03 AM on 03/30/2012

She did make Boner cry!

[marymeade2]

09:50 AM on 03/30/2012

I think Pelosi is past her level of usefullness and competence. She needs to retire and return to SF and live comfortably ever after, never to be heard of again.

[princeperry]

12:19 PM on 03/30/2012

You wish. She's a thorn in you side HUH? Why should you be happy? Some wishes don't come true.

[marymeade2]

12:24 PM on 03/30/2012

She is a thorn in my side. You're right, wishes don't always come true, but, sometimes they do. Why I am happy is my business.