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Jewish World Review
Oct. 27, 2006
/ 5 Mar-Cheshvan, 5767
Madame Speaker
By
Diana West
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Having spent a good bit of ink and space critiquing the president's war policy, I decided to do what many voters do at this point in the election cycle: pay close attention to what politicians say. Take House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, for instance. On "60 Minutes" recently, Mrs. Pelosi offered her take on the so-called war on terror which does not, she explained, extend to Iraq.
"Do you not think that the war in Iraq, now, today, is the war on terror?" Lesley Stahl asked.
"No. The war on terror is the war in Afghanistan," Mrs. Pelosi replied.
"But don't you think the terrorists have moved into Iraq now?" Ms. Stahl continued.
"They have," Mrs. Pelosi agreed. "The jihadists [are] in Iraq. But that doesn't mean we stay there. They'll stay there as long as we're there."
We stay. The "jihadists" stay. We go. They go. (Never mind resident death squads.) There's a certain logic to Mrs. Pelosi's strategy that is practically feasible so long as the tooth fairy isn't busy. But such fairy tales are no substitute for foreign policy.
Not that Mrs. Pelosi fancies herself a grand strategist. "Ask Nancy Pelosi to describe herself," says Ms. Stahl, "and the first thing out of her mouth is that..."
Suspense: Is it that she is the increasingly familiar face of the Democratic Party? Potentially the first woman Speaker of the House?
Nope. That first thing out of Mrs. Pelosi's mouth is that "she's a mother of five and a grandmother of five." This is quite often the first thing out of her mouth so often, perhaps, that its very repetitiveness may explain a recent news item. Earlier this month, while demanding a House Ethics Committee investigation in the ex-Rep. Mark Foley scandal, "Pelosi was booed by Republicans when she mentioned that she is a mother of five and a grandmother," reported the Seattle Post Intelligencer.
Now I can relate. After all, it's count-down time to Election Day, Iraq is chaotic, our own country has no control over its borders and the leading elected Democrat in the land wants voters to know she's...a mommy and a granny?
Back to Lesley Stahl's interview: "As she's poised to go down in history books if the Democrats win the House" suddenly (thankfully) a genuine "if" again "what Nancy Pelosi wants you to know is..."
No suspense this time. In these, the politics of personal distraction, what Nancy Pelosi wants you to know are not her far-left views on immigration, national defense, homosexual "marriage," etc. "When it comes to her real goal in life, she's just like any other woman her age," Ms. Stahl, um, reports. "I'm a grandmother," Mrs. Pelosi says. "It's great. It's fabulous. It was my goal in life and now I've achieved it."
How great; how fabulous but Speaker of the House? This is the voice of the professional woman or, rather, the Professional Woman, the kind of gal who brings sex (her own) into everything. Even into the job of Speaker of the House. "I think the fact that I am a woman will raise expectations in terms of more hope in government, and I will not disappoint," Mrs. Pelosi "explained" to the Los Angeles Times. Oh, brother.
There's more: "The gavel of the speaker of the House is in the hands of special interests, and now it will be in the hands of America's children. I don't mean to imply my male colleagues will have any less integrity... But I don't know that a man can say that as easily as a woman can."
Frankly, I don't know that a man can say that as easily, either or anyone else for that matter. And how did "America's children" get into it?
This is another one of Mrs. Pelosi's precious catch-phrases, usually connected by suffering to Republicans, as in: "Mr. Speaker, as we leave for this Christmas recess, let us say, 'G-d bless you' to the American people by voting against this Republican budget and statement of injustice and immorality, and let us not let the special interest goose get fat at the expense of America's children."
Say "G-d bless you" by voting against the GOP budget? Interesting way of worshipping Mrs. Pelosi's got there. Meanwhile, if the lady has her way, the gavel will soon be in the hands of "America's children." And that would surely mean the nation's goose is cooked.
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JWR contributor Diana West is a columnist and editorial writer for the Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.
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