Friday, November 17, 2023
Nancy, Schmancy
Here's a shocker: Nancy Pelosi has failed her first big political test, decisively; her fellow Democrats rejected her choice as majority leader, the anti-war but ethically challenged John Murtha, and voted in Maryland congressman Steny Hoyer by a dramatic majority, 149-86.
Pelosi made at least three mistakes that I can think of in this fiasco, which bodes poorly for her future ability to control the Democratic caucus:
1) Choosing John Murtha in the first place, giving the nets a chance to replay that horrifying old footage of Murtha from Abscam, in which he negotiates with an FBI agent posing as someone offering a bribe.
2) Not knowing she didn't have the support to get Murtha, and then progressing with a vote that not only shows her weakness, but actually makes her weaker still. (How's Pelosi going to exact retribution on the people who voted against her when there are 149 of them?)
3) Making this the first fight of her speakership, exposing the Democrats' internal strains, when she should be talking about health care, the minimum wage, abolishing the alternative minimum tax, and implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 commission.
The photo below is classic. Look at Murtha at the top right—could he purse those lips any tighter? There's Hoyer with a wonderful Cheshire cat grin. Pelosi's smile is a grim rictus of Botox and the figurative taste of excrement. Someone looking weirdly like an older JFK is in the back. And there's Rahm Emanuel, crafty Rahm, to the side. Note that on his right hand, the top of his middle finger is missing. I used to know how that happened, but I've forgotten. I do know that when Rahm is emphatically making a point, he thumps his stump on his desk, which is a little disconcerting. He's also flashed the stump at me, which is also a little disconcerting, but kind of funny as well, because you know he's deliberately messing with you.
(John Silber did this with the stump of his left arm, which ended above the elbow in a dramatic point; he tailored his shirts so that they were cuffed above the point, and then he would pound—pound!—the stump of his arm on his desk. Which was actually quite disconcerting, and intentionally so. But I digress.)
Pelosi and entourage: Hug it out, bitch.
Pelosi made at least three mistakes that I can think of in this fiasco, which bodes poorly for her future ability to control the Democratic caucus:
1) Choosing John Murtha in the first place, giving the nets a chance to replay that horrifying old footage of Murtha from Abscam, in which he negotiates with an FBI agent posing as someone offering a bribe.
2) Not knowing she didn't have the support to get Murtha, and then progressing with a vote that not only shows her weakness, but actually makes her weaker still. (How's Pelosi going to exact retribution on the people who voted against her when there are 149 of them?)
3) Making this the first fight of her speakership, exposing the Democrats' internal strains, when she should be talking about health care, the minimum wage, abolishing the alternative minimum tax, and implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 commission.
The photo below is classic. Look at Murtha at the top right—could he purse those lips any tighter? There's Hoyer with a wonderful Cheshire cat grin. Pelosi's smile is a grim rictus of Botox and the figurative taste of excrement. Someone looking weirdly like an older JFK is in the back. And there's Rahm Emanuel, crafty Rahm, to the side. Note that on his right hand, the top of his middle finger is missing. I used to know how that happened, but I've forgotten. I do know that when Rahm is emphatically making a point, he thumps his stump on his desk, which is a little disconcerting. He's also flashed the stump at me, which is also a little disconcerting, but kind of funny as well, because you know he's deliberately messing with you.
(John Silber did this with the stump of his left arm, which ended above the elbow in a dramatic point; he tailored his shirts so that they were cuffed above the point, and then he would pound—pound!—the stump of his arm on his desk. Which was actually quite disconcerting, and intentionally so. But I digress.)
Pelosi and entourage: Hug it out, bitch.
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Nancy does look creepy. I like Rahm, or at least respect his political prowess, and I'd love to be a fly on the wall for the Emanuel Thanksgiving--with the inspiration for Josh Lyman on West Wing (Rahm) and the inspiration for Ari Gold (Rahm's brother Ari)--but looking at Rahm with Nancy in this picture, I can't help thinking of Wormtongue from LOR.
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