Nancy and Sluggos ***Updated**

Republicans hate Nancy Pelosi with the white-hot heat of a thousand suns. Perhaps they think it's arrogant and presumptuous for a woman to be Speaker of the House; maybe they just resent her for looking less like Tina Fey and more like Judge Judy. Whatever it is, this blind crazy antipathy leads them to weird behavior.

Yesterday's budget bill meltdown is a prime example. Most Republicans opposed the bill; even more Americans did, and in the end a lot of Congressmen decided to save their jobs and vote against it. But when you ask them why it went down: Pelosi! She made a speech critical of Republicans and that cost them 12 Republican votes.

Madeline's Dad says:

Keep in mind that only 12 more votes were needed to pass the legislation. So if you only need 12 votes, the Republicans won't support it, and you have 95 members of your own Party saying "no", wouldn't it be a sign of strong leadership if the powerful Speaker of the House could get those 12 votes?
I guess it speaks to the "leadership" of Nancy Pelosi that she couldn't get 12 members of her own Party to cross over.
(for the record, 95 Democrats represent 40% of the Democrat population in the House.)
Worst. Speaker. Ever.

In other words, Pelosi failed to strong arm Democrats into passing a bill that we despise, and because of that we will despise her. I suppose the model of "Best. Speaker. Ever." would be Tom DeLay, who was famous for being able to pressure, bribe, or threaten votes out of anyone, to the point that he got a near unanimous vote for Clinton's impeachment. Which was extremely UNpopular with most Americans. So apparently, leadership is forcing Congressfolk to ignore their constituents and vote for dumb things.

What about Blunt & McCain? McCain suspended his campaign to come to Washington, put the negotiations on track, get everyone on the same page. Then, satisfied that he'd accomplished that, he put Blunt in charge and jetted off to grandstand elsewhere. Any blame for Blunt? Any for McCain? Not from my usual talking point sources.

In fact, the implication seems to be that Republicans were going to vote for the bill, but look at what Nancy Pelosi made them do! Whaaaaaaaaa! It's crazy that they're taking an opportunity to prove that they are fiscally responsible and instead turning it into an excuse to blame their behavior on mean Democrats. They hate her so much, they say bad things about her instead of good things about themselves.

***A day late, 700 billion dollars short:

REP THADDEUS McCOTTER(R): I think it was a mistake for House leadership to say that Pelosi’s speech mattered to anybody on our side.

DENNIS MILLER: Yeah, me too, me too.

McCOTTER: Because we yell at each other like this all the time. And so, what they’ve actually done is a victory for the American people, a victory for the institution of Congress, and a victory for Republicans and Democrats who voted against it. It’s being counter-messaged by their own leadership, who didn’t get it through. That is a terrible mistake and it’s hopefully not going to impact our ability to get this done more quickly than we, as quickly as we need to.