Pelosi Continues to Display Her Low-Brow Game [OPINION]
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) is a very powerful official in our federal government. She displayed her political firepower in 2018 when many presumed she was vulnerable to a coup in her own Democratic Party. She crushed the rebellion and instilled fear in the House Democrat membership, seizing back the speakership from would-be contenders.
She has been around a long, long time in D.C. – for 32 years plus, and Pelosi has dominated Congress over the last 12 and is a force to be reckoned with.
If she has a vulnerability in Washington, her "kryptonite" appears to be Donald J. Trump. He has been invulnerable to her political savvy to this point.
Pelosi and fellow Democrats had already filled out the articles of impeachment on President Trump as the Mueller report's conclusions were publicized. As we now know, the report fell far short of any impeachable offenses and concluded no collusion by Trump or anyone affiliated with his campaign or administration. Pelosi looked like a clueless shill following the embarrassing closure of that two-year episode.
Two days later, on July 26, 2019, the Democrats began another impeachment probe based on a call made by the president to Ukraine. They hastily put forth a narrative that was held together by strange theories and third-hand witness anecdotes. She pressed forward to prosecute him anyway.
She has failed to prosecute an impeachment of Trump. While the impeachment itself is forever, the Senate acquitted him on both articles of impeachment. Constitutional scholars are pointing to a few unwise and unsmart choices the speaker made in "quarterbacking" the hearings.
She was obsessed with rushing it through the House in the name of "urgency" but not before going on a month-long vacation, and not before waiting another 25 days after the hearings closed to hand the articles to the Senate.
Her preference to force a speedy impeachment hearing process and trial in order to get the Democratic senators who are presidential candidates back out on the campaign trail backfired.
Speaker Pelosi and her House Managers who prosecuted the trial in the Senate were outsmarted. Outmaneuvered too, and she hates him for that as well.
Yesterday, President Trump gave perhaps his best speech of his time in the Oval Office at the 2020 State of the Union Address. Any president is supposed to deliver an optimistic prognosis based on related successes at his or her hand as president.
On the same day Speaker Pelosi called him a criminal and as she continues to try to throw him out of office, she extended a hand for Mr. Trump to shake as he handed her a customary speaker's copy of his address. Trump left her hanging. Psych. He subtly dissed the speaker and that consumed Mrs. Pelosi for the rest of the evening's speech.
She refused to stand for most of the time while the gallery applauded. She and other female Democratic House members wore white, reminiscent of the "Guilty Remnant" from the HBO series The Leftovers. Sure it was in the spirit of suffrage but accompanied by their collective obedience to Pelosi to frown and sit on their hands at her command, they looked a bit cuckoo.
Like almost any SOTU speech, there are likely to be many things fact-checked by adversaries but Pelosi's behavior will be remembered by millions and will be reminded of it before they go into the voting booths of America on November 10.
She may be an effective legislator who possesses a lot of experience and sure knows how to self-preserve her power, but she looked like a petty fool last night. She tore to shreds the copy of the president's speech and made it quite clear not a single page was spared.
That is where criticism comes even from her base on the left. President Trump singled out a number of people ranging from African American World War II hero Charles McGee, who was in the audience last night with his great-grandson, the aspiring astronaut. The 100-year-old McGee was promoted to Brigadier General by Trump last December, based on his unrewarded yet astonishing military record.
A young mother who delivered her baby under duress two years ago was honored by the president, too. She brought with her the toddler who was born premature, less than a pound in weight and with tremendous challenges to survive outside of the womb. It was an emotional moment as he narrated their circumstances.
Again, the president honored a Latino immigration officer who perished at the hands of a violent illegal immigrant at the border, but whose brother was singled out by Mr. Trump to honor the fallen federal officer. A Staff Sergeant in the Army was reunited with his surprised family.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi stupidly tore even the pages which introduced these wonderful Americans and their stories. She did it for all the world to see.
It is fitting then that Nancy Pelosi may have done something no one in Washington but she could do: remove herself as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
It seems clear that she has harmed the Democrats based on the early chatter on this. Also, Iowa voter turnout and voter choices in the Democratic Party caucuses have shaken the establishment to the core. The 'front runner' and former VP Joe Biden took a distant 4th and garnered zero delegates.
Ken Pittman is the host of The Ken Pittman Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon. Contact him at ken.pittman@