Pelosi antes up

Jonathon Weisman at the Washington Post has a very interesting article on how Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi “aggressively endorsed a proposal by Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq as soon as possible, leaving only a much smaller rapid-reaction force in the region.”

Weisman uses strong language such as “aggressively,” “threw a wrench into a carefully calibrated Democratic theme,” ”highlighted the Democratic fissures on war policy,“ and spotlighted House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer’s very high profile dissent from Pelosi immediately after her statement. I knew Weisman while I carried a Capitol Hill press card and he himself is a liberal Dem who makes no effort to hide his convictions.

Pelosi’s announcement follows a statement, under-reported in the MSM, by Sen. Lieberman strongly supporting the Administration’s war policy. And yesterday, Sen. John Kerry hijacked a press conference Harry Reid had scheduled for Sen. Reed of Rhode Island to push a half-baked Bush-lite policy on Iraq, splitting hairs and characteristically trying to find a center of the centrist Democratic party position.

What’s going on with the Democrats? Weisman quotes an anonymous Democratic pollster that "the frustrations of the activist wing of the Democratic Party have boiled over."

But does Pelosi feel a need to guard her left flank? Why did she make what even a sympathetic reporter like Weisman insinuates was either hasty or ill-timed?

Hillary Clinton remains a committed centrist, taking flak for doing so by hyper-splenetic agitprop types on the far left, like Hollyweird spokesboy Tim Robbins who appeared on Air America’s aptly named “Morning Sedition” show to save Sen. Clinton for her position on Iraq.

Back in the day, I worked as a Democratic Party consultant and campaign organizer. I remember way back in 1968 working in Los Angeles for Gene McCarthy trying to stitch the Alan Cranston wing of the party regulars back together with the old-time New Dealers from the East Coast. The Cranston people were late-comers in turning against the Vietnam War and regarded as insufficiently dogmatic on leftist doctrine. In 1984, I worked for Mondale doing much the same thing from his Wisconsin Ave HQ.

Some things never change.

Pelosi‘s appearance last night on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show demonstrated [to me, anyway] that Nancy may not [or never] be ready for Prime Time in the political majors. She has a public persona that, were she a Republican, would earn her a lot of snide remarks. She has a presentation style that does not respond well to the give-and-take of a discussion, even with a sympathetic interlocutor like Stewart. Nancy sometimes seems ready to lose her temper, and maybe even her reason, when discussions veer away from her positions or when she faces abrupt opposition.

This is the place to point out that Hillary’s equipoise and balanced temperament serve as a stark contrast to Pelosi’s quick-response mode. While Hillary does not allow herself to be buffaloed, Pelosi has DNC Chairman Dean’s penchant for being quick to take umbrage and for biting off-the-cuff remarks. Perhaps these sound-bites appease the Angry Left, but they do not promote policy nor attract independents or moderate Democrats.

Although I'm an independent who leans right, I obviously think that Hillary is a first-rate politico who carefully protects her credibility. The chief way she does so is to avoid the internecine strife which ceaselessly tears at the fabric of the Democratic Party. The Angry Left has nowhere else to go if they actually wish to conquer the Republican behemoth. Unless their nihilism actually reaches suicidal levels, in the which case all bets are off.

Pelosi cannot seriously entertain aspirations for national office, so it appears her ill-timed announcement yesterday may actually help cement Hillary’s grip on the large bloc of moderate Democrats and Independents who are dissatisfied with the war, but like Sen. Lieberman and [it sorta sounds like] Sen. Kerry, wish to continue supporting the Bush Administration until at least early next year.