 |
|
May 24, 2013
May 22, 2013
John Thorne:
They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman
May 20, 2013
Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?
Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star
The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013
Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
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.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading."
Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Diana West is a columnist and editorial writer for the Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.
Archives
© 2006, Diana West
|
