Ah nnoooo.
I once worked for a candidate for the Mayor of Albuquerque. The opponent was the incumbent mayor: David Rusk, son of Dean Rusk, former Secretary of State under JFK and LBJ.
There were other candidates in the race. One of them pounced on Rusk for not cutting down weeds that were invading the city.
Rusk pounced back. In the early morning, a crew went out and cut down the weeds. There -- take that. Presto, bang-o! Action, Action, Action! You see now how responsive your mayor is?
I called up our client. "Forget the weeds," I advised him -- "Go after the orange barrels."
The roads were torn up all over downtown. Orange barrels placed for caution dotted the landscape, slowing down traffic. The worst part was they had been in place for months and months.
Our candidate, Harry Kinney, followed my recommendation and attacked Mayor Rusk for the barrels. Kinney won handily.
Unlike weeds, the roadwork and orange barrels could not be fixed overnight. Rusk was left twiddling his thumbs, wondering on election night what in hell hit him.
Moral of the story:
Never attack an opponent, especially an incumbent officeholder, on something that can be quickly and easily repaired. In saying that security was the problem, Pelosi had no choice but to cave in and give Trump admittance to the House after security was restored when the government shutdown ended.
There were plenty of other reasons she could have given which would have maintained -- indeed, enhanced -- her leverage over Trump.
Unfortunately for Trump opponents, she didn`t use them. She didn´t know how.
* * *
From Nancy Pa-Loser to Nancy Pa-Lousey.
CNN reported (February 7):
"Thursday is a big day for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The New York freshman Democrat, who has rapidly become one of the biggest stars in her party, will formally introduce her much-touted ´Green New Deal´ -- a package of legislation aimed at, among other things, addressing the threat posed by climate change.
Nancy Pelosi isn't all that impressed. Asked about the ´Green New Deal´ in an interview with Politico on Wednesday, Pelosi dropped this amazing bit of shade on it:
´It will be one of several or maybe many suggestions that we receive. The green dream, or whatever they call it, nobody knows what it is, but they're for it, right?´
I mean.
Pelosi knows exactly what she's doing here. Her utter dismissiveness of the ´Green New Deal´ -- and, by extension, AOC, who is the member most closely identified with it, is entirely intentional."
I worked for 6 years for the leadership in a House of Representatives. I will now tell you a secret I have never seen reported anywhere.
Our House consists of 70 members. Only three people run the place: (i) the Speaker who controls the floor action, designates where bills go for a hearing, determines on what committees the members will serve, etc., etc. In brief, the Speaker has immense power. (2) the House Majority Floor leader controls the prevailing party´s caucus. The leader is next in line to become Speaker. (3) The Chairman of the Appropriations Committee. There -- that is the leadership core.
Everybody else is a button-pusher -- "bumps on a log" an Appropriations Committee Chairman once told me in private. They do as they are told by the Floor Leader -- period. They have little -- if any -- knowledge why they are being instructed to vote up or down. To ask questions is to ask for trouble.
You heard correctly. Unless your representative is in the leadership, they are a bump. It´s all or nothing.
What you just read is the truth of legislative bodies everywhere in the U.S. However, the public image is that all representatives are not only important but also that they are equally so. That image is extremely important because if the public knew the truth it would demand substantive changes.
That is why Nancy, the supremely-brilliant-wonderful-perfect-gift-from-God-tactician-who-would-make-a-fabulous-president according to CNN, made a BBBIIIGGG mistake in publicly talking down to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The problem with 99% of politicians is they are not politicians. They are businessmen and women who are in it for the money. Nancy is no exception: with a net worth of $29 million, Nancy flaunts where her priorities are.
You read correctly: $29 million. Translation: she makes more in 20 seconds watching iCarly reruns than you do working hard all year.
Nancy´s clumsy and naive handling of AOC shows she is dashing headlong -- her determination is interminable -- to realize Karl Marx´s dream:
A classless society.