New House speaker shows she's boss

AP

By ERICA WERNER Associated Press Writer © 2007 The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Sworn in just over two weeks ago as the first female
speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi wasted no time showing who's boss.

The California Democrat rammed six major bills through the House at
breakneck speed, stomped out smoking privileges near the House floor, partially
sidelined a powerful Democratic committee chairman and decided she liked
traditionally Republican office space so much she claimed it for herself.

By Democrats' timekeeping, she did it all in far under the 100
legislative hours she had allotted."We did what we promised the American
people we would," Pelosi declared on Friday, pledging it was "just the
beginning."

Pelosi's initial agenda, completed Thursday, included measures with
wide popular support: increasing the minimum wage, broadening stem cell
research, allowing government bargaining on Medicare drug prices, cutting
student loan costs, putting in place terrorism-fighting recommendations from the
Sept. 11 commission and rolling back energy company tax breaks.
Each bill passed with bipartisan majorities and Pelosi triumphantly gaveled down the
votes, at one point banging the gavel so enthusiastically that it left a small
dent in the podium.
(snip)
....In the view of many Democrats, Pelosi's opening performance bodes well. She seemed to recover from postelection stumbles such as backing the losing candidate in the contest for House majority leader.

She also is getting a honeymoon from the public. Pelosi is held in higher regard than the president or her colleagues in the Congress. An AP-AOL News poll taken Jan. 16-18 put her approval rating at 51 percent — much higher than that of Congress (34 percent) or Bush (36 percent).
Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., a close ally, called Pelosis performance "spectacular."
"What the Democrats in the caucus are telling me is that this is the best three weeks of their life," he crowed.

Compare and Contrast.

CNN Dumbasses On November 16th

Situation Room onscreen text: Is Pelosi "Damaged Goods?"
On the November 16 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, host Wolf Blitzer asked "how badly is [Rep.] Nancy Pelosi [D-CA] damaged politically?" while the question "Damaged Goods?" was displayed on screen. Blitzer was referring to an "intraparty battle" among House Democrats, in which Pelosi backed Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA) to be House majority leader but Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) was ultimately elected.