Tipsheet

Pelosi Should Go

Newt Gingrich has said that Henry Paulson should resign.  Well, maybe he should.

But if there's anyone who clearly should go, it's Nancy Pelosi.  What kind of "leader" would scuttle a bill in the manner she did, by issuing a hysterical partisan denunication moments before it's to come to a vote?  By doing so, she's shown she's not fit to lead a two piece band, much less the House of Representatives.

Mind you, as I've said before, any Republican who changed a vote because of Pelosi's statements isn't worth discussing.  But it's quite likely that Pelosi deliberately sent a signal to many in her own caucus that a "no" vote wouldn't be held against them.  And so the bill failed.  She bears responsibility for it, even if not for the reasons Republicans have stated.

Heaven knows there's plenty of blame to go around.  But notice that you haven't heard Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell trying to put words in Barack Obama's mouth (as Reid did with McCain, as he played the come/don't come game); House Republican leader John Boehner didn't seek to poison the waters moments before the vote on the bill was to take place as Pelosi did.

Lord knows everyone seeks political advantage, and it's rotten luck for the country that all this is coming to a head just weeks before the presidential election.  But it strikes me that the Democrat leaders have let the over-the-top hatred festering in the netroots to infect them, to the point that it's become truly dysfunctional and borderline crazy.  That's as scary as anything about this whole mess.