Please don’t take your title literally

I just finished watching the tale end of the House of Representatives debate on the Iraqi withdrawal bill and I have a piece of advice for Nancy Pelosi:

Just because your title says “Speaker of the House” please don’t take it literally.

I was willing to accept the Democrats need to put her front and center during the first couple of months of her “historic rise to the speaker’s chair” - hey they won in November, they have the right. But Ms. Pelosi seems to believe that her responsibility has little to do with managing the house and more to do with speaking on the house floor. It seems like every time I turn on CSPAN, she’s in the well of the Congress pointing her pursed fingers like an imaginary goose’s head and neck pecking at imagined Republican misdeeds floating through the air. She’s not a good speaker and often fumbles through her very prepared remarks as if she’d never seen them until the moment she takes the dais.

Beyond her journeys in public speaking on the house floor there’s the never-ending parade of democratic press conferences where she only serves her party well because she speaks better than her fellow members (which isn’t saying much). Hence the following video…

You know come to think of it Ms. Pelosi, I apologize for my previous remarks. Please do us Republicans a favor and keep on talking… just don’t get too comfortable in the speaker’s chair.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 23rd, 2007 at 1:56 pm and is filed under Politics, Democrats. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “Please don’t take your title literally”

Jill says:
This is hysterical, Wendell, because for the last five mornings in a row, when I’ve been watching CSpan and CSpan 2, I shriek on and off for 30 mins because there are NO women on any of the hearing panels. What time are you watching CSPAN? Because I have never, not once, seen Pelosi on.

I think we need to be watching CSPAN and its broadcasting patterns. This is really interesting to me. I swear, I was going to blog about all the old white men I have to listen to each morning.

March 23rd, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Wendell says:
Ahh… only old white men are awake in the morning (something to do with the prostate).
Seriously though, she seems to spend an inordinate amount of time making speeches on the House floor. I can’t remember another Speaker (going all the way back in recent memory to Tip O’Neill) who made as many floor speeches as she does.

March 23rd, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Jill says:
Well…still…we’d have to look through the journals to see how much she actually says versus what is broadcast, now wouldn’t we, Wendell?

March 23rd, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Wendell says:
No, actually. CSPAN provides full wall-to-wall coverage of Senate and House floor proceedings, so it is all broadcast. Anything she says on the floor is broadcast. What I think is odd, is that she seems to take part in every debate. Most of the past Speakers have simply let their minions do the talking.

March 23rd, 2007 at 11:59 pm