I guarantee you there are a couple hundred Democratic members of the House of Representatives scratching their heads this morning, wondering why in God’s name they ever cast a vote for Nancy Pelosi as the public face of their party.
She just made an appearance on “Meet the Press,” and it was a disaster. Worse than that, it was a lasting embarrassment for any progressive-minded viewer hoping to see something other than a profile in stuttering, stammering, defensiveness, vacillation and evasion. I haven’t felt that uncomfortable since watching Roger Mudd ask Ted Kennedy about his day.
She said nothing with conviction, sitting instead visibly trying to recall her talking points cleared by a horde of nervous, focus-grouping advisers. As one sad example Tim Russert gave her the opportunity three times -- three times -- to pledge she would honorably and proudly work to repeal Bush’s inane tax cuts as Speaker, and she responded with empty, circumlocutory nothingness on each occasion.
Her answers concerning Iraq were almost unintelligible but clearly contradictory; her solution to the energy crisis was stilted, bumper-sticker pabulum having something to do with shifting our focus from the Middle East to the Midwest -- get it? clever, huh?; her demotion of “investigations” to only “hearings” into White House crimes was a bizarre and muddled distinction; and the rest of what she didn’t say with excessive strain wasn’t worth hearing, either.
Were I a Democratic congressional candidate I would be running away from Nancy Pelosi as fast as I was running against George W. Bush. Her projection of party timidity and uncertainty was that bad.
In 1994 Republicans had Newt Gingrich, a slick, bold, convincing, walking promise of real changes to come, whether real or not, smart or not. In 2006 Democrats are stuck -- or are they? -- with the gutless Nancy Pelosi, a quivering reed of unpromising fear and paralysis.
She’s regarded by the opposition as its secret weapon. But you know it, I know it, even rank-and-file Democrats know it, which makes her something less than a secret force of internal destruction. So why can’t professional Democratic strategists figure it out?
If you doubt my assessment of her agonizing appearance on “Meet the Press” you can read the transcript here (yet to be posted as of this writing), though I would suggest you first take a slug or two of fermented fortification. It’ll rattle you. Really.