Tag Archives: nancy pelosi

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obama’s silence on syria helps iran

It doesn’t seem like a gutsy call to put sanctions on a head of state who has jailed protesters and shot peaceful demonstrators since early March.  President Barack Obama’s overdue call to add Bashar al-Assad to a sanctions list restricting his travel outside of Syria is a slow start to one of the greatest U.S. foreign policy opportunities of our generation.  And today’s Middle East Speech did nothing more to push Assad.

The end of Assad’s regime would be a blow to Iran and help isolate Ahmedinejad’s government in the region by removing its main ally and partner in crime.  Isolating Iran, especially right now, could have profound consequences for Americans’ security, too, since the Iranian government announced it has mastered the technology needed to make a nuclear weapon.  The Iranian leader also said that Israel should be wiped off the map.

But the Obama team either believes it can charm Assad into ending his relationship with Iran or doesn’t see the strategic importance of ending the Assad-Iran partnership.  Obama’s engagement policy with Syria and his decision to send a U.S. Ambassador into Damascus normalized relations with a man Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called “a reformer.”  Assad responded to Obama’s overtures and acquiescence with more violence and terror and less reform.  But Obama is unfazed.  Syria has strengthened its ties with Iran and has continued to send and support terrorists into Iraq, Israel and Lebanon; And Obama can only muster enough outrage to say that Assad must stop using violence against his people.

Syria has allowed Iraqi Sunni insurgents to mobilize and plan attacks from its territory, has been accused by the United Nations of planning and assassinating Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and has supported Hezbollah and Hamas efforts to destabilize Israel and Lebanon.  The reluctance by Obama and Clinton to act decisively on the Syrian government’s brutal actions against its people allows Syria to maintain its position as a legitimate member of the international community.  Obama’s Middle East missteps have also encouraged neighbors like Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan to abandon his normally pro-western positions in favor of his comfortable relationship with Assad and Ahmedinejad.

Obama’s refusal to call for an end to the Assad regime is consistent with U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s trip in 2007 to Damascus to meet with the Syrian President despite pleas from the Bush Administration to not legitimize the dictator and Vice President Joe Biden’s refusal to call for Egypt’s Hosni Mubarrak to step down or characterize him as a dictator.

The recent evidence of brutality by Assad’s government is undeniable.  More than 10,000 people have been arrested, 800 protesters killed and 120 government security forces killed since the protests began.  Opposition forces are calling for an end to President Assad’s regime and an expansion of economic and civil liberties; a goal Obama should wholeheartedly support.

An April 4th crack-down by government forces was caught on tape and posted on YouTube showing Syrian protesters shot outside a mosque and lying in the street – some dying on camera:

(Warning: This video is very graphic)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb8QgqeKeiI

Images like these have rallied hundreds of thousands of people throughout Syria to continue fighting for their rights.  These compelling stories have also prompted
human rights activists to call for more direct action from the White House.

For an Administration that criticized the international community’s slow response to Darfur and committed to utilize the United Nations more, little has been done to rally the world to support an obvious U.S. priority.  Obama and his Ambassador to
the UN Susan Rice haven’t forced a vote of the UN Security Council on Syria nor
put the UN members on record to either support the protesters or the dictators
in Yemen, Egypt and Tunisia.  While the Arab revolution has unfolded over the last several months, Rice has failed to even offer draft resolutions for discussion.
Instead, Rice has allowed Russia and China to dictate the non-agenda.

It’s clear from Obama’s Middle East speech today that he has sidelined the UN.  Team Obama should be applauded for realizing their previous commitments to utilize the UN for all international issues was a foolish campaign promise to look un-Bush (see also: Iraq pullout in one year, closing GITMO, enhanced interrogations, military tribunals).

Obama should speak more forcefully about Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and call for him to step down. He should also immediately withdraw the U.S. Ambassador from Damascus, kick out the Syrian Ambassador in Washington and call upon Europeans to do the same.  If Obama believes that the status quo is unsustainable then he should stop supporting it.  Timidity is exactly what Assad and Ahmedinejad are looking for.

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gay leaders need a tea party shakeup; 111th congress a total failure

The entrenched gay leaders in Washington, DC, have spent the last two years blaming Republicans for the fact that they themselves have struck out on Capitol Hill and will end the 111th Congress with nothing to show for their multimillion-dollar fundraising efforts.  If this were a public company, the Board or the shareholders would have run these leaders out of town a long time ago. 

Despite campaigning for decades to put Democrats in control of all of Washington, their dream ticket of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barack Obama failed to deliver what the gay leaders themselves promised the movement.  Led by Joe Solmonese of Human Right Campaign and Aubrey Sarvis of the Servicemen’s Legal Defense Network, gay leaders have been tripping over themselves to protect President Obama from blame for not making the promised progress on gay equality.  Solmonese and Sarvis are the faces of the most expensive failed gay campaign in history.  Other gay leaders in Washington also have turned their comfortable and high-paying perches into a safe haven free from the consequences of job performance evaluations. 

Gay Americans from outside Washington should demand that they stop sacrificing progress to further their personal political careers.  It’s time we found some young gay leaders who will work for equality and not be concerned about pleasing the Democratic Party.  

Gay politics are not black and white.  It isn’t true that all Democrats are good on gay issues and all Republicans bad.  The outcome of the Prop 8 vote in California, where the traditionally Democratic state also overwhelmingly voted for Barack Obama for President, proves that Democrats have a lot of work to do in their own party.  Republicans have failed us, too.  I am not suggesting we dismiss the GOP sins of advocating for small government policies while practicing intrusive, big government tactics.  But Republicans who advocate laissez-faire principles can be great allies, just as liberal Southern Democrats can be strong opponents working against us.  But Somonese and Sarvis have never seen it this way.  For them, it’s all a process to help the Democratic Party win more seats.  And for this failed strategy, they should be judged harshly.

The partisan leaders of the gay and lesbian movement in Washington have spent endless political capital telling us that we would be better off if all of our elected officials were Democrats.  They have spent millions of dollars trying to convince us that we will be taken care of by a partisan Democratic America.  At the same time, they have also secured their positions of prominence within the Democratic Party by being able to deliver the gay vote.  Sadly, we have become tokens for their careers.  In early 2009, Sarvis sent a strong message to his Democratic friends that it wasn’t the right time for the Democratic Party to take up gay issues yet.  He told the Washington Times that waiting until at least 2010 for some LGBT victories made sense.  “Where does ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ fall in all this?,” Sarvis asked.  “I would say it is not in the top five priorities of national issues.”  His Board should have fired him on the spot.

It is painfully obvious that the national gay leaders have promoted their own partisan agendas and careers within the Democratic Party instead of working to ensure passage of civil rights.  Solmonese, a seasoned Democratic Party activist who at first maneuvered for a political appointment in the Obama Administration, couldn’t even move Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who represents the gayest district in the country, to put DADT or gay marriage up for a standalone vote in the House.  And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid easily manipulated gay leaders into supporting him to wait until after November’s elections to put controversial issues up for votes.  Reid wanted this issue to be unresolved going into November’s elections and Solmonese and Sarvis allowed it.  The real tragedy is that gay leaders in Washington don’t have enough moxy to move their own political party – the party that controls the White House, the Senate and the House.  It is a sign that they either don’t have the skills to make political progress or are too close to the Democratic leadership and therefore unwilling to make the necessary push.  We can do better and we should start by demanding for Somonese’s and Sarvis’ resignations.

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is jane harman next?

Voters across the country are holding out-of-touch politicians accountable for their years of egocentric decisions and callous indifference to constituents. Southern California Democrat Jane Harman exemplifies the politician that voters are tired of. Harman’s career in Congress may very well end in California’s primary election on June 8th.

What is clear to district voters is that Harman’s silly and childish public fight with Speaker Nancy Pelosi has neutered her ability to be effective in introducing or passing legislation. Its clear Harman won’t work with Republicans and can’t work with her own party’s leadership. She has single-handedly alienated most everyone she needs to be an effective voice for the people in her coastline Los Angeles district. Harman’s self-proclaimed expertise on national security issues has also become a thorny issue for the conservatives who think she isn’t tough enough and the liberals who think she is too tough. Harman is proof that if you are everything to everyone then you’re a soul-less politician without a base. Harman’s television commercials comically mention no issues but instead show pictures of the district with upbeat music playing while her name is splashed on the screen – a constant reminder to voters that we don’t know who she is or what she stands for after 8 terms in Congress. But voters have tired of being ignored by the multi-millionaire Congresswoman who failed to hold any legitimate town hall meetings on Obama’s healthcare plan even though voters in the district were calling for them. Harman, the richest Democrat in Congress, just ignored the requests and petitions from voters and kept a low profile during the debate. Harman likes to pay attention to the voters closer to her elections.

But California’s unique election process offers voters the chance to classify themselves as “Declined to state” instead of choosing between Republican or Democrat. Harman’s district, which runs from San Pedro to Venice, has one of the highest concentrations of voters classified as “declined to state” in all of California. The independent and unaffiliated voters of the district will decide who represents Los Angeles’ coastal communities in Washington, DC for the next Congress. And the timing couldn’t be more perfect for Harman to lose her seat in the primary election of June 8th. Email chains and community buzz have Democrats and Republicans joining together to dump Harman in the primary by voting for Marcy Winograd. For Democrats, Winograd is a grassroots liberal more connected to the traditional base and willing to listen to the activists of the party. For Republicans, Winograd presents an obvious and stark contrast to their conservative principles of lower taxes and personal responsibility.

Winograd’s tough grassroots campaign has forced Harman to ignore the healthcare debate and call for higher taxes and defense spending cuts despite the fact that her district is home to some of the Nation’s most respected defense contractors. Winograd has effectively outed Harman’s liberal policies at a time when voters are concerned with the traditional tax and spend tactics of this Congress.

Waiting for Winograd or Harman after June 8th, is Mattie Fein. Fein is the best hope for Republicans to take back the district and a rising star in Republican politics. Fein is smart, humble, funny and wildly experienced. She is a mother who speaks comfortably about job creation in the casual beach community of Venice as well as national security policy in the halls of Congress.

Fein will blunt Harman’s self-proclaimed expertise on intelligence and national security issues by challenging Harman’s quixotic ideas of dealing with terrorists. And Fein’s approachability and personality are more in tune with the beach culture of the district than Harman’s limousine liberal attitude.

Without even trying Harman has actually succeeded in uniting the parties together – they are now united to defeat her.

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grenell in politico.com on supreme court nominee kagan

http://www.politico.com/grenell%20on%20kagan

This isn’t about Kagan’s sexuality, it’s about her potential honesty. This isn’t about one picture of a woman playing softball, it’s about her truthfulness.

But Kagan could end all of this by speaking up.

Christine Pelosi’s post is actually laughable. This has nothing to do with being a woman. Being closeted or just being good at softball has nothing to do with the struggles real women have been through or the problems that closeted gay people have made for everyday gay Americans fighting to be treated equally. It’s actually offensive to women and to gays to minimize this issue. This could in fact be about being closeted and ashamed of you who are. It is a fact that we know all too well that closeted people cause great damage to themselves and to the issues they espouse. Andrew Sullivan is brave for talking about it. While I don’t agree with everything Andrew says, he is right to raise this issue. The Nancy/Christine Pelosi history of ignoring gay issues in favor of using gay issues to stay in power is sad.

While it may be noble to say that someone’s sexuality doesn’t matter, and I agree, it is dishonorable to be closeted and crippled with shame about who you are. Kagan could easily end this speculation by saying “I am straight.” But she hasn’t. And the simple fact is that the rumors have been around for years that she is gay. This isn’t a new issue for Kagan. She is choosing to ignore these rumors for some reason…but she shouldn’t.

If Kagan was out then this wouldn’t be an issue. Or at least I would be writing to say that being out and comfortable and honest shouldn’t be an issue. If she is gay and she’s closeted then this should be a huge issue. We should expect honesty from our leaders and then judge their policies.

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Rick Sanchez’s Show claims ‘technical difficulties’ in getting GOP Healthcare response.

Rick Sanchez’s Show claims ‘technical difficulties’ in getting GOP Healthcare response.

The day after the federal government hijacked 1/5 of the U.S. economy in order to give health insurance to unemployed 26 year olds was a giddy day for CNN’s Rick Sanchez. The 3pm EST host for the supposed cable news network in the middle couldn’t hold back his excitement for the healthcare hijack that had just taken place in Washington.

Sanchez gave us 25 minutes of non-stop gloating from supporters of the healthcare take-over. Sanchez gave us Obama, Biden, Pelosi, more Obama, Biden’s over-the-top and profane characterization that this is a really big deal, more Obama, Ted Kennedy’s widow telling us this is a really big deal, more Obama and a really long pen-signing ceremony to celebrate the occasion. We also got some yucking-it-up moments from Democratic members of Congress telling the President they had cast some tough votes on a really big issue. Then Sanchez gave us Analysis 101 with David Gergen and another reporter conversing with him on how the Republicans keep talking about over-turning the legislation but the reality is they won’t be able to do it. Sanchez assured us that he knew it was all talk – and that it couldn’t be done. When Gergen tried to bring up the fact that public opinion was on the Republicans’ side as evident by the most recent poll showing a large number of Americans were not pleased with the takeover, Sanchez jumped in to say that in his humble opinion “We shouldn’t even be talking about that poll because it was taken before the vote”. Huh? Why would that matter? Americans don’t want this healthcare hijack and all the pushing by Sanchez that this is a really big deal won’t change their minds. We know it’s a really big deal and that’s why we’re mad!

And then, 25 minutes into Sanchez’s show he tells us that in an effort to be fair, we will soon be hearing from the Republicans “to get their take” on the healthcare hijack. But after the obligatory commercial break, Sanchez tells us that we won’t be able to hear from the Republicans right now because CNN has a technical problem. Seriously? There is only one computer satellite available for the Republicans’ response in all of CNN? It’s hard to believe but Sanchez assured us it was true. After several minutes and several other non-stories, Sanchez tells us that we will get GOP reaction, “If we get the computer fixed “. And then Sanchez starts laughing in an obvious ‘I don’t care’ kind of way. “It’s not like it’s our fault, it’s a technical difficulty,” he tries to explain with a smirk on his face.

Whatever excuse Rick Sanchez comes up with, the simple fact is that his show had no Republican response 35 minutes into it on the day after the “really big deal” healthcare vote. For more than 35 minutes, Sanchez orchestrated a liberal diatribe in support of the bill.

When CNN finally “fixed” the technical problems, Sanchez’s highly anticipated GOP response turned out to be a twitter review of tweets from 6 members of Congress over the last 24 hours. The 6 tweets highlighted by Sanchez, trumpeted as CNN’s Republican response, weren’t from Republicans afterall. The first three tweets highlighted were from Democratic Senator Udall, Democratic Senator Specter and White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs. The last 3 tweets were from Republicans – Price, Jenkins and Meghan McCain. Hardly a GOP response. And hardly a show worth watching.

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jane harman is MIA, nancy pelosi is facing her waterloo

politico.com Jane Harman is MIA

Nancy Pelosi is manipulating the legislative process away from an open and transparent one and into a secret system where her chosen few will be the only ones who know what is in a healthcare bill that will systematically change the way everyone in America receives and pays for their health insurance. Should this process really be a horse trade within the Democratic Party? And where is the Obama promise that the process would be completely transparent to the American people.

The American people are watching closely to see which members of Congress vote for this bill even though they won’t know the details of the bill and won’t have read it before the vote. This healthcare vote will be Nancy Pelosi’s Waterloo. She will find herself no longer the Speaker and her reputation ruined as an out of touch and elitist secret manipulator.

Even members of Congress that think they are in a safe district will be vulnerable. Jane Harman, for instance, has a large and active group of independents organizing to defeat her. Harman held no healthcare briefings for the public and has been completely quiet and hiding from her constituents. A multimillionaire afraid to speak with those she purports to represent is not the way our founding fathers envisioned the process.

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