111th House Democrats Should Dump Pelosi-Do You Agree?

111th House Democrats Should Dump Pelosi-Do You Agree?

Democrats, it’s time to clean the House. Start at the top.

When the 111th Congress convenes in January, it is time for a change -- a change of the Speaker of the House. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca) in her two years as speaker has enabled a pro-Bush, pro-corporate agenda almost as facilely and frequently as Republican presidential nominee John McCain.

In November 2006, voters put Democrats in the majority in Congress to end the Iraq occupation and hold Bush responsible for the war. But the among first things she did when she became speaker was take impeachment off the table, giving Bush a blank check to wage the Iraq war for two more years.

Showing disdain for those opposed the war, Pelosi snubbed peace demonstrators outside her San Francisco home, morphing into Bush who refused to meet Cindy Sheehan and peace protesters outside his Crawford, Texas, compound.

Under Pelosi’s leadership, Congress gave Bush a half-trillion dollars for the Iraq war Pelosi said she wanted to stop. More than 1,200 U.S. soldiers and thousands of Iraqi men, women, and children have died since Pelosi became speaker.

Pelosi has refused to sanction hearings to collect evidence about impeachable offenses, and she quashed other House members’ impeachment efforts. By last June, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) had compiled at least 35 articles of impeachment for G.W. Bush. The first 16 articles relate to the Iraq war: for secret propaganda; deception about 9/11; weapons of mass destruction, and illegal spending in an unauthorized and undeclared war.

Pelosi also enabled legislation legalizing warrantless wiretapping and granting immunity not only for telecommunications company executives, but also for Bush, Dick Cheney, and other administration officials. The law obliterated our Fourth Amendment protections against illegal search and seizure.

Pelosi looked the other way as Bush politicized the Justice Department, using US attorneys to corrupt the voting process and wage political vendettas against Democrats. Former Alabama Governor Donald Siegelman spent time in federal prison after Karl Rove’s political associates trumped up charges against him. Pelosi has let White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolton, now former White House Counsel Harriet Miers, and now former Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove defy congressional subpoenas.

In September, Pelosi joined with Bush to plunder even more of the Treasury for their corporate cronies under the guise of a $700 billion Wall Street bailout. Pelosi with other congressional Democrats stood at the microphones, salivating at the prospect of helping Bush loot the U.S. Treasury. The scene was sickeningly reminiscent of Senate Democratic leaders Tom Daschle and Richard Gephardt, with presidential ambitions on their sleeves, rush to the White House six years earlier embracing Bush and his illegal and immoral preemptive attack on the people of Iraq.

Instead of educating and leading and representing, Pelosi and her Democratic cohorts quiver at the thought they might be blamed for a terrorist attack or financial collapse if they deny Bush what he wants.

Are Pelosi’s repeated capitulations to Bush due to complicity -- knowing inside information about 9/11, torture, and wiretapping? If she were compromised, Pelosi could have refused the speaker’s position. If she were afraid of political retaliation like that against Siegelman, she could have stepped down.

If Bush et al had threatened another 9/11 or martial law if the Democrats voted against his corporate agenda, the smart, powerful, proactive politician would hold a press conference surrounded with other vulnerable officials and tell the American public the truth.

But instead, Pelosi appears a willing tool. She has used her position to enrich herself and her family, click here http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/printer_4179.shtml          

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