It's Reid's victory, not Pelosi's

House Speaker Pelosi has been named "the most powerful woman in American history," and others are congratulating Pelosi for her win with Health Care Reform (HCR).

After thinking back how HCR came about on the legislative side, we may need to conclude that the REAL winner is Senate majority leader Harry Reid. Here's why:

Having sixty out of hundred seats in the Senate is certainly a large majority, but considering that sixty votes were needed to block a Republican HCR filibuster, it was a master piece of work on Reid's part to get each and every duck in line to vote for Reform! He didn't have one vote to lose and indeed he secured them all!

Pelosi on the other hand, has now a 37-seat majority, yet HCR passed in the House by a slim margin of only four votes. When her bill passed a few months ago, she had a larger majority in the House, but there again it passed by only a handful of votes. We can all be certain that the least competent Speaker with a sweeping majority can get enough members to for anything he/she wants.

If 216 votes are needed to pass a bill, it is not called "getting your House in line" and it is not big shtick when you secure only 219 votes while having 253 to your disposal, and when the Transportation Department sends grants - on the eve of the vote - to the district of a Congressman who ties up ten votes against you. Furthermore, Pelosi said time and again that the final bill will have the Public Option, and other things that the Leftist House wanted and passed in their original version. At the end of the day, however, Pelosi passed Reid's bill; not her own. Pelosi caved to Reid; she did NOT get the things she promised herself that she will get.

Finally, to those who think that Pelosi secured her place in positive history with this reform, let me ask you two things: 1) Do you know who the Speaker of the House was when Social Security passed? 2) Do you know who the Speaker of the House was when Medicare/Medicaid passed? You don't know, and neither do most Americans know! In fact, approximately 40% Americans in a poll released this week have not heard enough about Pelosi to have an opinion on her!

All in all, if anyone showed leadership, and if anyone had a success with this Reform, it is Reid, not Pelosi.

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