Pelosi: The Very Model of a Modern House Speaker

By Marc Sheppard

For all her fanfare as the first female Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi hasn't exactly taken the country by storm. Since taking the gavel:

She failed to get her $35 billion increase to the children's health insurance program (CHIP) off the floor.
She failed to get her $13.5 billion oil company tax break rollbacks into the energy bill.
While she has managed to get Iraq troop withdrawal deadlines through the House in several forms, neither the Senate nor the President have signed on to a single one.
She tossed her "pay as you go" pledge right out the window when the House froze Alternate Minimum Tax expansion for one year with no way to pay the $50 billion deficit expansion it would create.

In fact, after promising to lead "the most honest" and "most ethical" Congress ever, Madam Speaker has presided over a House that snuck well over 11,000 earmarks into its bills. And the worst transgressor, Rep. John Murtha (D-PA.), personally responsible for $163 million in pork last year, was Pelosi's first choice for Majority Leader. Not that Steny Hoyer (D-MD), who edged out Colonel Pork for the top slot, fared much better. He managed to stink up the joint with no less than $89 million dollars in earmarks, himself.

No, 2007 was not a great year for the glass-ceiling-breaking San Francisco liberal. And with current RCP poll average approval ratings for Congress at about 24%, 2008 doesn't appear to be shaping up much better.

But all has not been a dismal failure under Nancy's nimble leadership. Politico reported great news on Tuesday -- Pelosi has actually achieved some success in her

"'Greening the Capitol' plan to make the House campus more environmentally friendly and socially progressive."

Yes, it appears that while Hillary Clinton struggles to win her place in history as our first female president, our first high-heeled House Speaker is proving her worth by eco-remodeling congressional cafeterias and revamping their menus in favor of healthier foods.

That's right -- one strives to replace our market-based healthcare system with a government-controlled bureaucracy while the other replaces meat-loaf with mahi-mahi.

Okay, so maybe this thoroughly modern progressive woman is falling behind in her House work -- particularly keeping the floor clean (of earmarks), balancing the checkbook (PayGo) and taking care of the kids (CHIP).

But you've got to admit - she's certainly doing a great job in the kitchen.