Who's the enemy here?

By Peter Wilson

Renée Loth, the editor of the Boston Globe editorial page, praises Nancy Pelosi today in The Power of Pelosi, citing in particular Madame Speaker's well-circulated quote:

You go through the gate...If the gate's closed you go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we'll pole-vault in. If that doesn't work, we'll parachute in. But we are going to get health care reform passed for the American people.

I expect that a majority of the American people interpreted this as a shocking admission that the ends justify the means. Most Americans respond to this disregard for legislative process with alarm.

Not Ms. Loth, however. She compares the speech to Winston Churchill's "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds...we shall never surrender. . .''

There's a big problem with this analogy. Churchill was fighting Nazis. Who is Pelosi fighting? Not Republicans, who are irrelevant with the current Democrat domination of Congress. She's fighting her fellow Democrats who are fearful that their constituents will throw them out of office. For the comparison to work, the American people must be analogous to Nazis.