FORGET "The Devil Wears Prada the hot show in Washington is "The Shrew Adores Armani." In just a few short days, House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi has turned into a caricature of the shrill, petty woman boss.
Armani-loving Pelosi demanded, in heavy-handed diva fashion, that House Democrats back her ethics-challenged antiwar crony, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), as her chief deputy - acting as if she's the queen whose word must be law.
But it all blew up in her face; Murtha lost 149-86 to Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), a onetime Pelosi rival whom she wants to keep squashed down. So Pelosi's first move as House leader left her a big-time loser.
"She messed this up so badly, it's breathtaking. It raises real concerns about whether she can separate her personal issues from the issues of the Democratic caucus," says a veteran Democratic strategist.
"It's not just the heavy-handedness, it's the clumsiness. There can be a stereotype of a woman as petty and personal - and she's now at real risk of creating that image for herself. She's reawakened all the old doubts about whether she is ideologically too liberal for this job, and added new ones as well."
The stereotype of the woman boss as a self-centered witch on wheels who'll run over anyone in her path has plenty of roots in American culture - "The Devil Wears Prada," zinging a fashion editor modeled on Vogue's Anna Wintour, is just the latest incarnation.
So if "Nancy Shrew" becomes the image of the highest-ranking woman ever in American politics - Pelosi will be second in line of succession to the presidency - it'll be a problem for all women politicos, including 2008 prospect Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).
Pelosi's insistence on pushing pal Murtha even forced The New York Times to belatedly acknowledge that the "culture of corruption" is bipartisan - not just a Republican evil, as Times news stories and editorials kept suggesting until the election.
...
But it's not just Murtha. Pelosi intensely dislikes fellow California Democrat Rep. Jane Harman, and has decided to block Harman from becoming chairwoman of the House Intelligence Committee.
The origins of the Pelosi-Harman feud are murky - "It's almost like two teenage girls in the bathroom with one telling the other, 'You're not cool enough to be in my club,' " says one Democrat.
Read the rest.
When you're enemies are destroying themselves, don't interefere.
Joh Podhoretz also weighs in.
DEFEATED Republicans are strangely jubilant, while victorious Democrats are shaking their heads in dismay. Why, oh why, did civil war have to erupt inside the Democratic Party only a week after its stunning triumph in the midterm elections?
Item: Washington's new No. 1 Dem, Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi, decided she wanted her sleazy born-again-peacenik buddy Jack Murtha to be the House majority leader. That's the No. 2 slot. Not so fast, said the House's current No. 2 Dem, Steny Hoyer: He forcefully pushed back against Pelosi's efforts to oust him and trounced Murtha in yesterday's vote of Democratic House members.
So Pelosi and Hoyer - who ran against each other for the post of minority leader in 2001 and are said to dislike and distrust each other - must now work together on the complex task of managing the rules and structure of the House of Representatives.
1 comment:
Pelosi reminds for all the world of a boss I had years ago. Petty and nasty as the day is long. She used to say to me, in front of others, that she could discriminate against me all she wanted cause she was female and I was a white male under 40 (at the time). She surrounded herself with a group of incompetant boot-lickers who actually detested her all the while. I left that job as soon as possible.
Hey Jammie, in a sports note, you can forget about the Chicago Bulls being a force in the Central division this year. Ben Wallace, signed from the Detroit Pistons to be a defensive force in the middle, has apparently decided to spend the year wandering around the court aimlessly, staying out of people's way, and cashing paychecks.
Their game the other night against the Mavericks was a lay up drill for Dallas. No Bull, including Wallace, shows any interest in maybe occasionally trying to get a hand in somebodies face. I predict a major melt down by Skiles before Christmas. Word is getting around the league that you can just stroll to the bucket against the Bulls any time you feel like it cause no one will so much as say hello to you on the way to the hole. In the Mavericks game there were 58 "blow-bys" (I counted on the tape) by the Mav's.
Lottery pick here they come. Again.
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