Tim's Favorite Blogs
Media Matters
Blog Directories
Friday, January 5. 2007
A Happy Birthday
An Historic Moment: John Boehner delivers the gavel of the House of Representatives to the “Gentle Lady of California, Nancy Pelosi.”
It’s long overdue when we consider that Pakistan, arguably one of the most fervent Muslim countries in the world, had a woman prime minister, Benazir Bhutto. Not to mention Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany and Ronald Reagan’s best friend, Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of England.The United States lags behind the rest of the world, the civilized world, in a lot of areas, not the least of which is equality, especially for women. Pelosi is second in line to the Oval Office, behind only Vice President Dick Cheney. Think of that: If a replay of the eight months between the resignation of Spiro Agnew and Richard Nixon took place starting today, we would have President Pelosi by September 1. That must drive the Pelosi haters nuts.
On Thursday, after Congress was sworn in officially (no Bibles or other books of worship were visible) and the new leaders were giving their speeches, Rush Limbaugh was on the air slamming Pelosi. I didn’t listen much, Pelosi’s speech was far more interesting.
Chris Matthews, on Hardball, was already demanding answers: What is their (the Democrats’) plan for Iraq, if I may be permitted to paraphrase the talk show host. Do they oppose the possibility of President Bush ordering an escalation of U.S. involvement in Iraq?
Today Matthews got his answer. Besides enacting their agenda for the first 100 hours of Congress (She got high marks from Lou Dobbs for the legislation on lobby reform and ethics), Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, issued a joint, open letter to President Bush insisting they would not support sending more troops to Iraq, in response to what many consider the president’s “new” direction for the war that has now gone on for almost four years and claimed the lives of over 3,000 American military men and women.
An excerpt from the letter: “After nearly four years of combat, tens of thousands of U.S. casualties, and over $300 billion, it is time to bring the war to a close. We, therefore, strongly encourage you to reject any plans that call for our getting our troops any deeper into Iraq.”
The only real power Congress has over the military are the purse strings and the question is, will they keep them tied or will they acquiesce to the president and fund an escalation? Congressman John Murtha, Democrat of Ohio, is the Chairman of the House Sub Committee for Defense Appropriations and he was hinting strongly that any requests by the White House for additional funds — additional troops — would be scrutinized far more diligently that they have for the past four years.
Yes, he’s hedging his answer, but I’m thinking Murtha will be tight-fisted when it comes to the president’s “new” strategy …
Which included sacking General John Abizaid as Commander of Central Command and pulling General George Casey from his post as commander of the troops in Iraq. Abizaid will retire and Casey will become the Chairman of the Army. The scapegoats are falling.The classiest man at the election of Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House? Representative John Boehner, Republican of Ohio. When he handed the gavel of the Speaker’s Chair to Speaker Pelosi, it was with genuine pride and admiration that he said, “For more than 200 years, the leaders of our government have been democratically elected. And from their ranks, our elected leaders have always selected a man for the responsibility and honor of serving as speaker of the House. Always, that is, until today.” He called his task the “… high privilege of handing the gavel to a woman for the first time in American history.”
On Fox News that day, Boehner went on to say, “This is a big day. It’s an historic day for the House. And I think all Americans ought to be proud of the fact that Nancy Pelosi will, in fact, be the first woman speaker of the United States House of Representatives.”
Indeed Congressman. My hat off to you sir, for your part in making January 4 a day to remember.
•••• •••• •••• •••• •••• •••• •••• •••• •••• •••• •••• •••• •••• •••• •••• •••• •••• ••••
One more item: Happy Birthday to my brother-in-law Bleu (Jaunary 2), my niece Sarah (January 3) and my brother Ken, also born on January, 4 making him my favorite birthday present ever!
Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry
No Trackbacks
Calendar
Quicksearch
Archives
Categories
AD Links
Referrals
Syndicate This Blog
Blog Administration
Powered by
TheForkesReport