March 16, 2018--Step Aside, Nancy

An important promise that congressman-elect Conor Lamb made during his campaign in southwestern Pennsylvania was the promise that if elected and the Democrats take control of the House of Representatives, he would not vote for Nancy Pelosi to again become Speaker. 

In his calm if convoluted style, Lamb said, "I think it's clear that this Congress is not working for people. We need new leadership on both sides. It's not personal" he continued, "It's more about the fact that I expect leaders to get results, and the result of our congressional leadership has been to have people in the district dissatisfied with their performance."

Early in the campaign, with millions of out-of-district money flooding in to underwrite Republican Rick Saccone's efforts, most of the TV ads were about how beneficial the Trump tax cuts are for working people. When it became clear that voters were not buying this "white lie"--they knew the tax cuts were tipped to benefit big corporations and the wealthiest five percent--the Saccone campaign ran no more adds about taxes and switched tactics, airing new ones that claimed if Lamb were elected he would become one of Nancy Pelosi's sheep.

We know how that worked out. 

But, come the fall, in all congressional districts up for grabs, perhaps as many as 125, we know that there will be an avalanche of anti-Pelosi ads. 

GOP campaigns will focus on the few issues that remain for them to try to hoodwink voters--the evils of immigration, guns, and God. But front and center will be ads about aspiring-Speaker Pelosi who they will demonologize  

One thing we know they won't be doing is inviting Donald Trump to come campaign for them as the more he did for Saccone the worse it became for him. His lead in the polls evaporated.

Lamb is right. Pelosi is no longer an effective leader. She had her turn in 2009-2013 and with it made history--as the first female Speaker she presided over a productive House of Representatives where she was essential to the passage of Obamacare legislation.

Now, she is more political liability than asset. For the sake of her party, as her best contribution to resisting Trump's agenda come November, she should step aside now and in so doing reap all the accolades she has earned. This is a better exit from the spotlight than being voted out as Lamb and his-soon-to-be-gathering colleagues will surely do.

There comes a time for all of us.

December 4, 2015--House Speaker Paul Ryan Steps Out

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, now replete with a Jake Gyllenhaal beard (but still with the Eddie Munster widow's peak) covertly yesterday began his presidential campaign.

Recall, like a blushing bride he had to be coxed to run for Speaker after John Boehner stepped down in frustration, pique, and tears. Now that he senses the GOP field is likely to deadlock next year and not be able to come up with a nominee, he is positioning himself to again be courted to save the Party.

So not in the House of Representative itself but instead in the Library of Congress to give him an aura of gravitas (he has a squeaky voice and looks as if he's just post-adolescent), before a background of Stars and Stripes he gave a preview of how his 2017 Inaugural Address would sound.

Mainly bromides like tax reform (more cuts for the top 5 percent), ending Obamacare and replacing it with (inadequate) subsidies for the uninsured to buy private medical insurance, reforms (read cuts) in the Social Safety Nets, and a muscular foreign policy designed to win the war against ISIS.

He's betting that hanging back and pretending not to be interested in anything but tax policy and spending time with his children back in Wisconsin worked to get him to be second in line from the presidency and that playing the same rope-a-dope again will propel him into the White House next year.

Keep and eye on that widow's peak--if it gets lazared away he's really running.

October 13, 2015--"M Train"

I was going to write about the Republicans struggle to come up with a new Speaker, about how they are trying to woo Congressman Paul Ryan to allow them to elect them.

He is playing hard to get, but since he really wants to be President he doesn't want to seem too eager for this lesser job, two heartbeats from the presidency.

Here's his plan--

Be coy about the Speakership and then do it for the sake of the party and, of course, of America.

Then next year, after the GOP presidential candidates wind up in a scrum without a candidate with either a majority or mandate, blushing politician that he is, allow them to nominate him. Come to him, as now, plead with him. Promise him anything if just he would only save them from themselves.

Recall, he's the one who makes his staff read Ayn Rand. That alone should disqualify him but, for the faithful in his dysfunctional party, that's what they most love about him. That he's a man of ideas. Even if crackpot ones.

Hillary, as of this week with a 20 point lead over Bernie in the polls (forget Joe Biden), must be sitting back, smiling, and lighting up a victory cigar.

But, rather than writing about any of this titillating stuff, if you haven't yet picked up a copy of Patti Smith's on-going memoir, M Train, I recommend it. It's not quite Just Kids level, but still special.

Here's a brief taste--

We want things we cannot have. We seek to reclaim a certain moment, sound, sensation. I want to hear my mother's voice. I want to see my children as children. Hands small, feet swift. Everything changes. Boy grown, father dead, daughter taller than me, weeping from a bad dream. Please stay forever, I say to things I know. Don't go. Don't grow.