If the latest Zogby poll is accurate, the Democrats are poised to take control of the House of Representatives. If that were to happen, Nancy Pelosi would likely become Speaker.


Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is warning that a Democratic victory at the polls on November 7 will turn over the House to "the San Francisco values of would-be Speaker Nancy Pelosi."

Just how dangerous, then, is the House Minority Leader from California to those who hold to traditional conservative values?


Pelosi is one of the most liberal members of the House, receiving a 95 percent "liberal quotient" from the Americans for Democratic Action based on her support for the liberal position in key votes. [Editor's note: Find out about the hypocrisy of Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kennedy, Michael Moore, John Kerry and others

She voted against cutting taxes by $70 million, renewing the Patriot Act, reducing the death tax, drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and making it a crime to desecrate the U.S. flag.

She supports gay marriage, and backed legislation allowing overseas military facilities to provide abortions for women in the military and military dependents.


The would-be Speaker also backed a measure calling for a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, supported a bill requiring a 72-hour background check for persons buying weapons at gun shows – and opposed a bill strengthening the enforcement of immigration laws.


Pelosi's Hypocrisy


But a look behind the scenes exposes Pelosi as a Democratic leader who passionately fights for liberal policies, yet goes to great lengths to avoid applying those policies in her personal life.



Pelosi claims to be a staunch union supporter, and along with her husband has received the Cesar Chavez award from the United Farm Workers Union, notes Schweizer.

Unions are, in her words, "fighting for America's working families" and battling "the union-busting, family-hurting" Bush administration. But Schweizer uncovered that a $25 million Northern California vineyard the Pelosis own is a non-union shop!

Pelosi's hypocrisy doesn't stop there.



The congresswoman is the top recipient among members of Congress in campaign contributions from labor unions, and has received more money from the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union than any other member of Congress in the last several election cycles.


But in addition to the wine business, the Pelosis own a large stake in the exclusive Auberge du Soleil hotel in Rutherford, Calif. The hotel has more than 250 employees, but once again, Schweizer found, it is strictly a non-union shop.

The Pelosis are also partners in a restaurant chain called Piatti, which has 900 employees.


"But a union card is not required to work there bussing tables, washing dishes, serving guests or preparing food," Schweizer wrote in NewsMax Magazine.

"As with Auberge du Soleil, at Piatti the Pelosis' commitment to organized labor ends at the front door."


Pelosi has also demonstrated hypocrisy on the environment. "With us," she proclaims, "the environment is not an issue – it's an ethic. It's a value."

That's what she says. Schweizer exposed what she does: One of her largest investments is a private partnership called Lions Gate Limited, which operates the CordeValle Golf Club and Resort in San Martin, Calif.


To get a permit to build the facility, the partners promised to build a "public course" providing considerable access to non-members, and to abide by several environmental requirements to ensure that there would be minimal ecological damage.


But after the facility opened, the county's Planning Commission found that the golf course was in fact private – and the club had "ignored" many of its permit requirements concerning the environment!

"The reality is that liberals like to preach in moral platitudes," says Schweizer.

"But when it comes to applying those same standards to themselves, liberals are found to be shockingly guilty of hypocrisy."

[Editor's note: Find out about the hypocrisy of Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kennedy, Michael Moore, John Kerry and others Go Here Now!]
http://www.newsmax.com/adv/doasisay/

Gosh, I am so glad that site is so unbiased and objective.

Pelosi expected to be 1st woman speaker.


WASHINGTON - Rep. Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) dashes off declarations about what she would do with a Democratic majority in the House with the ease of someone ordering a latte at Starbucks.

The woman expected to become the nation's first Madam Speaker promises a barrage of "discrete deliverables" in the first 100 work hours after the Democrats take control:

_Boost the minimum wage? The only question is how high, how fast.

_Fiscal discipline? "Remove all doubt. Pay as you go."

_Research on new embryonic stem cells? Scrap the ban on federal funding.

_Problematic prescription drug coverage for seniors? "We can do something about that."

_9-11 commission recommendations? Approved on Day One.

The list goes on and on of things she'd get passed by the House and battle to make law.

All this from fractious House members, and within only their first 100 hours in session?

"Well, I would do them all on the first day, but I know they have friends and relatives in town and they want to celebrate," Pelosi says with a playful grin.

Anticipating her party's new majority status, Pelosi struck a confident and conciliatory tone Tuesday night: "Democrats are ready to lead. We are prepared to govern. And we will do so working together with the administration and Republicans in Congress in partnership, not partisanship."

Pelosi, 66, made history four years ago when she became the first woman to lead a party caucus in either house of Congress, piercing what she calls a "marble ceiling" in the Capitol that's even harder to break than the proverbial glass ceiling encountered by many women.

Twice in the past, Pelosi had presented Republican Dennis Hastert with the speaker's gavel as the GOP extended its control of the House for two more years. "This is getting tiresome, Mr. Speaker," she said last time.

Then, she did her darndest to make sure it didn't happen again, organizing difficult-to-corral Democrats into a united front against President Bush and congressional Republicans, campaigning tirelessly for members of her own party and raising campaign cash for them by the boatload.

Pelosi, a liberal who represents one of the nation's most liberal congressional districts, presides over a Democratic caucus in which members voted with their party 88 percent of the time in 2005, one of the most cohesive records in decades, according to an analysis by Congressional Quarterly.

She raised $59 million for House candidates this election cycle and more than $100 million since she was elected Democratic leader.

No one has worked harder "to bring us out of the desert," said Rep. Anna Eshoo (news, bio, voting record), a fellow Democrat from California and longtime friend. "This woman is a human tornado."

Pelosi, the daughter and sister of Baltimore mayors, grew up immersed in politics and moved west in her 20s when her investment banker husband wanted to return to his roots. She managed to work herself into California's Democratic political structure while raising five children who were born over six years.

She didn't run for Congress until she was 46, when her youngest daughter reached high school.

Twenty years later, Pelosi's confident vision for House Democrats will be sorely tested in the messy business of making laws.

Her pledge to treat Republicans more fairly than they have dealt with Democrats could be "the first casualty of a Pelosi speakership," said Jack Pitney, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College in California who has written extensively about Congress.

Rutgers political science professor Ross Baker said that as a leader of the Democratic minority, Pelosi executed "guerrilla warfare against a vastly superior force." Her weaknesses, he said, included the Democrats' failure to offer a clear message to counter the Republicans and her sometimes halting television presence. "She needs some work in the green room," he said.

"My hunch is that there is some uneasiness in the House about her as speaker," Baker said, adding that such reservations are tied partly to her liberal image.

Republicans worked overtime to stoke those reservations during a campaign that, in some GOP races, sometimes seemed to be solely about Pelosi. All around the country, GOP partisans invoked the specter of "Speaker Pelosi" as reason enough to keep the House in Republican hands.

In Indiana, for example, GOP mailings on behalf of Republican Rep. John Hostettler (news, bio, voting record) magically transported the Golden Gate Bridge from Pelosi's district to an Indiana field, and declared, "San Francisco values don't belong in Indiana."

Pelosi, whose district takes in much of San Francisco, has a voting record that consistently gets her laurels from liberal interest groups and raspberries from conservatives.

But she also is a pragmatist.

"She's good at counting noses, which means that she'll do everything she can to represent the whole caucus," said Bruce Reed, president of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. "She'll have to."

California Rep. Dennis Cardoza (news, bio, voting record), one the so-called Blue Dog Democrats who advocate fiscal restraint, said Pelosi recognizes that "in order for her to have a successful speakership, she will have to continue to embrace the moderates in the caucus." He is quick to point out that Pelosi has promised to make an early push for reinstating "pay-as-you-go" budgeting rules that require new spending to be offset by raising taxes or cutting spending elsewhere.

But, as if to show the difficulty of Pelosi's task, he also notes, "We're not elected to be controlled; we're elected to represent our districts."


I was not very surprised the the people sent a message to the clowns in DC. But It is theirs for the next 2 years, lets see if they can come up with some kind of a plan as they sure as hell don't have one at present. I will say this I sure as hell do not like the idea of her as 2nd in line to be the President.

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Well here ya go, say howdy to the new fools on the hill.
p.s. Me thinks we are in for a weird 2 years, but what the hey they can't do any worse than the others. I don't think there is enought damange they can do in that short a time period, just my own thoughts.

Now we just have to see if democrates can take control of the senate, that will be the victory that counts.

I really don't think that you can say that they have a victory, there is not much that they can do in 2 years, also they really don't have any kind of a valid plan which they can share with the american people on what they intend to accomplish in the next 2 years. Also you must remember that if they don't they will be out of power with the next election.

Sure is a lot of hot air in that picture.

All they have to do is stop the war and they will be in office for a while. And cut off the billions of dollars to bush and start our slow climb out of our major deficit. Im not sure what sort of elaborate plan they need to have, what was bushs plan, to invade iraq and spend lots of money, give me a break. Oh yea and molest little boys.

Here we go again, You don't understand what is gonna happen with the war do you? Your own party said that they WILL not pull out of IRAQ. Time will tell if they are the cut and run party. That said, they stated that there are other things that are more important right now. ie wage increase, lower drug cost, scandles, you remember those? And if they have a plan that will work then I say more power to them, but I have yet to hear one. If you know what it is please tell the rest of the world.

I guess this will fit in here



Waxman Set to Probe Areas of Bush Gov't


The Democratic congressman who will investigate the Bush administration's running of the government says there are so many areas of possible wrongdoing, his biggest problem will be deciding which ones to pursue.
There's the response to Hurricane Katrina, government contracting in Iraq and on homeland security, political interference in regulatory decisions by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration, and allegations of war profiteering, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., told the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.

"I'm going to have an interesting time because the Government Reform Committee has jurisdiction over everything," Waxman said Friday, three days after his party's capture of Congress put him in line to chair the panel. "The most difficult thing will be to pick and choose."

Waxman, who's in his 16th term representing West Los Angeles, had plenty of experience leading congressional investigations before the Democrats lost control of the House to Republicans in 1994.

That was the year when, as chairman of an Energy and Commerce subcommittee, he presided over dramatic hearings he convened where the heads of leading tobacco companies testified that they didn't believe nicotine was addictive.

The scene made it into the movie "The Insider," but Waxman noted Friday that no subpoenas were issued to produce that testimony.

Republicans have speculated that a Democratic congressional majority will mean a flurry of subpoenas and investigations into everything under the sun as retaliation against the GOP and President Bush.

Not so, Waxman said.

"A lot of people have said to me, `Are you going to now go out and issue a lot of subpoenas and go on a wild payback time?' Well, payback is unworthy," he said. "Doing oversight doesn't mean issuing subpoenas. It means trying to get information."

Subpoenas would be used only as a last result, Waxman said, taking a jab at a previous committee chairman, GOP Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana, who led the committee during part of the Clinton administration.

"He issued a subpoena like most people write a letter," Waxman said.

Waxman complained that Republicans, while in power, shut Democrats out of decision-making and abdicated oversight responsibilities, focusing only on maintaining their own power.

In contrast to the many investigations the GOP launched of the Clinton administration, "when Bush came into power there wasn't a scandal too big for them to ignore," Waxman said.

Among the issues that should have been investigated but weren't, Waxman contended, were the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, the controversy over the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's name, and the pre-Iraq war use of intelligence.

He said Congress must restore accountability and function as an independent branch of government. "It's our obligation not to be repeating with the Republicans have done," Waxman said.

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Pelosi Will Bring 'Speaker Pork' to San Francisco



Tip O'Neill secured down payments for Boston's Big Dig. Sam Rayburn sent gushers of cash back to Texas, along with tax breaks that helped its oil industry. Hospitals, schools and nonprofits in Dennis Hastert's hometown of Aurora, Ill., have seen millions roll in during his reign. Now Rep. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco is poised to follow them as speaker of the House - a perch predecessors used to channel big cash to pet projects back home.


"There's a long tradition where not only can you bring back your average pork as a member of Congress, but speaker pork gives you a lot of money, a lot of influence over the purse," said Julian E. Zelizer, a congressional historian at Boston University.


Pelosi, a Democrat, will be the first Californian to hold the post, and congressional watchdogs say they'll be observing her new spending clout with great interest.


There are "a lot of peeping chicks everywhere," said Tim Ransdell, executive director of the California Institute for Federal Policy Research in Washington, D.C. "And implicitly the House speaker has a nice war chest to start with."


Aides to Pelosi don't dispute that the state will benefit from a changing of the guard at the Capitol. "From the speaker's chair to committee chairs, Californians in Congress will have additional clout to help the home state," said Pelosi spokeswoman Jennifer Crider.


But less than a week after the election, Pelosi has no specific wish list for her district, Crider said.


As she has moved up through the ranks of spending committees and the Democratic leadership, Pelosi has already helped send millions of dollars home.


According to Citizens Against Government Waste, a federal spending watchdog, in the last two fiscal years Pelosi has helped obtain:



$6.7 million for the Presidio Dental Clinic.

$2.1 million for the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park.

$388,000 to the Filipino Cultural Center in San Francisco for "rehabilitation."

Now, as she prepares to assume one of the most powerful posts in Congress, the pressure to funnel money to the San Francisco Bay Area is bound to increase, Ransdell said.


"The transportation crowd will want rebuilding of freeways or the Bay Bridge access, or else more money for a transit project here or there," he said. "The social-services community will want additional funding perhaps for a welfare program, or else maybe construction of additional low-income housing or homeless housing."


As she considers requests for hometown projects, Pelosi has powerful partners: Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, also from the Bay Area.


With Democrats taking over the Senate, Feinstein will likely assume leadership of an influential spending subcommittee. Boxer will become chairwoman of a committee key on transportation projects and climate-change research.


Pelosi is set to ascend to speaker in January, and House and Senate members typically make their spending requests to key committee members by February. But interest groups are already lining up.


Pelosi identified stem cell research as one the Democrats' top priorities during this year's campaign. That has raised hopes at the San Francisco-based California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state's stem cell agency.


Robert Klein, chairman of the committee that oversees the agency, said he chatted with Pelosi three days before the election about her commitment to stem cell research.


During their conversation, Pelosi made no federal funding pledge to the stem cell agency, which is authorized to dole out about $3 billion in state bond money for stem cell research.


Still, Klein said the agency will benefit from Pelosi's influence in passing favorable legislation expanding research funding elsewhere in the country.


With Congress certain to intensify its interest in alternative energy and biotechnology, University of California officials met with Pelosi several weeks ago to make sure she knew the university system's resources are available, said Scott Sudduth, its liaison to the federal government.


Having a California speaker can help the federal agencies that finance that research maintain their funding - money that trickles down to UC's research institutions, he said.


In September, the House changed its rules to end secret pork projects. The resolution banned a practice in which lawmakers anonymously insert "earmarks" - narrowly tailored spending that often helps a specific company or project in their district - into bills.

The measure required lawmakers to identify the special projects they slip into legislation. Pelosi voted against it. Crider said Pelosi wanted a more stringent package of rules, but that measure ultimately failed.


One of Pelosi's first actions in January will be to try again to pass "a strong rules package" that would among other thing renew and strengthen the ban on secret earmarks, Crider said.

You are absolutly right only time will tell. So far time has told the peoples view of this president and this war, so we will see. As far as im concerned there needs to be some people going to jail at the end of all this. But time will tell.

Pelosi pulls out the stops for Murtha
By Josephine Hearn

Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is imploring her colleagues to support Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) for majority leader, multiple House Democrats said yesterday, dealing an unexpected but not necessarily fatal blow to Murtha’s opponent, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).

It had been unclear until yesterday whether Pelosi would use her clout to turn votes to Murtha. She endorsed him in a letter Sunday, but some dismissed it as a nod to personal loyalty rather than a statement of her intentions.

But by yesterday, her intent was clear, several lawmakers said; she hopes to oust her onetime rival Hoyer from the leadership.

“She’s committed. If they thought she was just going to endorse his candidacy, they were mistaken,” said Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), a Murtha ally. “She didn’t have to do this. It’s called courage.”

By throwing her full weight behind Murtha, Pelosi risks suffering an early setback with her colleagues if Hoyer wins; however, a Murtha victory would cement her total control.

Pelosi called incoming Ways and Means Committee chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) yesterday morning just hours after he had told the New York Sun, “I think Steny has done his job. I cannot think of any reason why this is happening,” prompting the paper to run the headline “Rangel Backs Hoyer for Leader.”

“I don’t know what article she had seen, but she had thought it was an endorsement of Steny,” Rangel said.

Rangel told her it was not an endorsement but reiterated his earlier statement that “nobody had given me any reason not to support Steny.”

Rangel would not discuss the details of his conversation with Pelosi, but he said that that statement remained true even after their conversation. “I’m not supporting anyone right now,” he said.

Yet nine other incoming full committee chairmen are supporting Hoyer. Reps. John Dingell (D-Mich.), Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.), Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.), Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), John Spratt (D-S.C.), Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) signed a letter yesterday backing Hoyer.

“There simply is no question: Nancy and Steny have been a terrific team … we believe that Nancy and Steny not only deserve great credit for bringing us to this point, but also will be the best team to lead our caucus as we move forward in the majority,” they wrote.

Murtha and Pelosi were working the crowd together Monday night at Murtha’s reception at the Library of Congress.

The two of them spoke to Rep.-elect Tim Walz (D-Minn.), who said afterward that he was “still undecided” but appeared to be leaning toward Murtha.

“To be honest, I was waiting for the Speaker,” Walz said. “When the Speaker speaks, you listen. I take that into heavy consideration.”

Still other freshmen remained steadfast in their support of Hoyer despite intense lobbying by Murtha’s allies. Reps.-elect Ron Klein (D-Fla.), Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) and Phil Hare (D-Ill.) were vigorously supporting Hoyer yesterday.

Klein said the new members were ready to have the issue decided.

“I think most of the freshman class [supports bringing] this forward. Get this done and let’s get on to business,” he said.

Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) said he hoped Pelosi’s endorsement would have an effect, “especially on freshmen.”

The intense lobbying has put some freshmen in uncomfortable situations. The Murtha camp was infuriated Friday when Rep.-elect Paul Hodes (D-N.H.) signed a letter with other freshmen supporting Hoyer, charging that Hodes had told them he would remain uncommitted.

“I really can’t comment on what anybody else thought,” Hodes said yesterday. “I consider my word as my bond and I am continuing to support Congressman Hoyer.”

Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), a Murtha supporter, said Monday night that Pelosi is playing for keeps.

“She will ensure that they [the Murtha camp] wins. This is hardball politics … We are entering an era where when the Speaker instructs you what to do, you do it,” he said. “Yes, she’s making calls to people. She is contacting people and letting them know that it’s an unequivocal letter.”

Hoyer’s camp was aware of the calls, said one lawmaker supporting the Democratic whip.

“She’s making calls, so don’t be shocked,” the lawmaker said.

Another House Democrat supporting Hoyer was incensed that Pelosi was exerting her influence in the caucus, asserting that it will further divide House Democrats.

“It’s an incredible display of hubris,” the member said, using a phrase Pelosi herself sometimes employs. “It’s incredibly egotistical. We all got us here. We all got us to the promised land and Steny’s not going to the promised land?”

The member said regardless of who ultimately wins the Thursday election, the effect of Pelosi actively getting involved in the race would reverberate for some time.

“Either way, it’s damaging,” the member said. “She will have a tremendous road to hoe to repair the damage she’s done.”

quote:

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is warning that a Democratic victory at the polls on November 7 will turn over the House to "the San Francisco values of would-be Speaker Nancy Pelosi."

Wow, democrats are so evil.

quote:

She voted against cutting taxes by $70 million, renewing the Patriot Act, reducing the death tax, drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and making it a crime to desecrate the U.S. flag.

So, balancing the budget, conserving the environment, and fighting for human rights are evil, sick, homosexual-loving things? Interesting.

quote:

The would-be Speaker also backed a measure calling for a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, supported a bill requiring a 72-hour background check for persons buying weapons at gun shows – and opposed a bill strengthening the enforcement of immigration laws.

How are these in of themselves negative things? Especially firearm control?

quote:

But a look behind the scenes exposes Pelosi as a Democratic leader who passionately fights for liberal policies, yet goes to great lengths to avoid applying those policies in her personal life.

Neocons don't? What the hell?

quote:

Pelosi claims to be a staunch union supporter, and along with her husband has received the Cesar Chavez award from the United Farm Workers Union, notes Schweizer.

Unions are, in her words, "fighting for America's working families" and battling "the union-busting, family-hurting" Bush administration. But Schweizer uncovered that a $25 million Northern California vineyard the Pelosis own is a non-union shop!

OBVIOUSLY there isn't more to be told. Obviously the buck stops here, summed up beautifully by these newspaper paragraphs.

quote:

Pelosi has also demonstrated hypocrisy on the environment. "With us," she proclaims, "the environment is not an issue – it's an ethic. It's a value."

That's what she says. Schweizer exposed what she does: One of her largest investments is a private partnership called Lions Gate Limited, which operates the CordeValle Golf Club and Resort in San Martin, Calif.


To get a permit to build the facility, the partners promised to build a "public course" providing considerable access to non-members, and to abide by several environmental requirements to ensure that there would be minimal ecological damage.

But after the facility opened, the county's Planning Commission found that the golf course was in fact private – and the club had "ignored" many of its permit requirements concerning the environment!

"The reality is that liberals like to preach in moral platitudes," says Schweizer.

"But when it comes to applying those same standards to themselves, liberals are found to be shockingly guilty of hypocrisy."

Again, Neocons ring a bell? And I thought conserving the environment was a bad thing.

quote:

Me thinks thou protests too much....You posted in another thread that political extremism is damaging this country, I agree. Yet, the article you're quoting is addressing the hypocrisy of Pelosi, not whether any of the votes, beliefs, initiatives, etc. are either good or evil, or whether the writer even agreed or disagreed with Pelosi. You ASSUME that this is a right wing nut job spewing hate. And, yes, it is right wing slanted (well, very slanted), but it's reporting facts relating to her hypocrisy. You attack the article, not for it's facts, but the "way it sounds" and really don't address the main point of the article. You attack extremist views with an unrelated extremist reaction. You're contributing to the hate.

nah, how can he be a contributor to the hate? That only applies to Republicans.

WASHINGTON, DC - Frustrated by failed attempts to turn public support away from the senator, congress today announced it would begin releasing completely fabricated
documents and videotapes on Monday.

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich addressed the press at the Capitol this
morning. "We feel that with the release of all the documents from the Starr Inquisition, and the public still supporting the
senator, we need to take further steps in our neverending goal of overturning the 1992 and 1996 elections.

On Monday morning, we will release a diary of Senator Clinton's in which she claims to have had dinner with Adolf Hitler,
Ayatolla Khomeni and Saddam Hussein, and later slept with them in the Lincoln Bedroom. She also claims in the diary, 'Meat is murder, I am a communist, Die Capitalist Die!' We will also
release a doctored videotape showing the senator strangling a litter of small kittens."

A CNN/Newsweek poll following the press conference showed a slight rise in the senator's approval rating.

Democrats: Family Feud or Civil War?

The rules governing congressional ethics, proposed by House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi, are "total crap," says Rep. Jack Murtha, D-Pa.

Murtha has been backed by Pelosi as a candidate for House Majority Leader.

Appearing Wednesday on MSNBC's "Hardball' with Chris Matthews, Murtha was asked to clarify remarks he made about the ethics bill to a meeting of the conservative Blue Dog Democrats group.

Matthews asked Murtha if it was " . . . total crap to tell people you can’t take a lunch from somebody? Where do you draw—where is your position on ethics right now?"

Murtha at first hedged, claiming that the "crap" he was talking about "is the crap that people have violated the law, the crap that the kind of things that have happened with Abramoff, the kind of things that have happened with some of the members."

"But that’s not what you said," Matthews shot back. "Didn’t you say it was total crap, what she was proposing?"

Said Murtha: "What I said was . . . it is total crap that we have to deal with an issue like this when we’ve got a war going on and we got all these other issues - $8 billion a month we’re spending . . ."

Murtha assured Matthews that he has the votes to win the majority leadership post.


(Oh no is there fighting already?)

kinda strange how politicians when pressed on a particular issue consistantly resort to the answer "we've got a war going on" to keep from answering the question.

We do have a war going on though and thats the first thing that needs to be delt with and needs to end then they can continue there political squabbles.