Political Republican Opinion

Political Republican Opinion:

Democratic Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, just moments before the “Wall Street Bailout” bill was set for a vote, took the opportunity to turn efforts to save the American economy into a partisan political moment by making a speech that damned the Bush administration and promoted the Democratic Party.

Pelosi began her speech to the assembled House of Representatives by ripping the Bush Administration’s “failed economic policies - policies built on budgetary recklessness, on an anything goes mentality, with no regulation, no supervision, and no discipline in the system.”

“Democrats insisted that legislation responding to this crisis must protect the American people and Main Street from the meltdown on Wall Street,” she continued. “The American people did not decide to dangerously weaken our regulatory and oversight policies. They did not make unwise and risky financial deals. They did not jeopardize the economic security of the nation and they must not pay the cost of this emergency recovery and stabilization bill.” She then went on to outline the “key” provisions that “we … insisted that this bill contain.”

Pelosi finished up her appeal for “bipartisan legislation” with the following: “Today, we will act to avert this crisis, but informed by our experience of the past eight years with the failed economic leadership that has left us capable of meeting the challenges of the future. We choose a different path. In the new year, with a new Congress and a new President, we will break free with a failed past and take America in a New Direction to a better future.”

Gee, I wonder why there may have been a problem getting bipartisan support after a speech like that. This woman has got to be the biggest imbecile to ever hold the position of Speaker of the House. She is clearly the worst Speaker of the House since Thomas Howell Cobb vacated the position in 1851. Cobb, also a Democrat, used his position as Speaker of the House to promote the extension of slavery.

Since being elected by the Democratic majority to her position and promising an effort to lead a bipartisan effort to get things done in Washington, Pelosi has led the most ineffective and worst-rated Congress in American history. Not a single piece of meaningful legislation has been passed since Pelosi was propped up onto the thrown.

The Political Republican Opinion Blog feels that if the Democrats really want to do something to unite the House of Representatives; if they really are serious about winning back the hearts of the American public, they will hold and pass a vote of “no confidence” in Nancy Pelosi, thus removing her from the position that she is so clearly unqualified and undeserving of. At the very least, they should put their top dog on a very short leash and slap a muzzle on her! To avoid the torrent of comments from women that would surely follow if I were to take the dog analogy any further, I’ll switch tacks and simply call her a clown!

Technorati Tags: bailout, Mancy Pelosi, pelosi, Political Republican Opinion, us presidential election, wall street bailout

Political Republican Opinion:

As I was in the process of finishing up my National Defense Issue post in the Comparing McCain and Obama Series, I became distracted by an article that appeared on The Washington Times online. The article explores the possibility that the 2008 presidential contest could finish in an Electoral College 269-269 tie.

Think it can’t happen? “Take the 2004 map and switch Iowa, New Mexico and Colorado into the Blue column, which is what the poll numbers indicate. Then, take New Hampshire and give it to McCain, which is what two recent polls suggest is going to happen. There is your tie,” the article states. Another possible scenario offereded in The Washington Times article is, “if … John McCain wins Ohio, Virginia, New Hampshire and Indiana - not at all far-fetched - and Mr. Obama takes reliably Democratic states Pennsylvania and Michigan, and flips Colorado (in which he holds a slight poll lead), with the two splitting New Mexico and Nevada, the electoral vote would be tied at 269.” Then, what would happen?

Well, according to the article, things get pretty dicey as far as the U.S. Constitution is concerned. The framers of the Constitution were fairly vague in their wording of the procedures that would follow. The confusion all centers on whether the currently sitting Congress would determine the tie-breaker or whether the newly elected Congress would.

The Constitution states that the House of Representatives “shall immediately” choose by ballot, the new President. Because the Electoral College ballots are counted in December, some argue that the outgoing Congress would be in charge of making the decision.

Others argue that operative - and decisive - verbiage was set out in U.S. Code Title 3, Chapter 1, Section 15, in 1934. It states that “”Congress shall be in session on the sixth day of January succeeding every meeting of the electors. The Senate and House of Representatives shall meet in the Hall of the House of Representatives at the hour of 1 o’clock in the afternoon on that day.”

The Constitution further provides that the Senate would choose the Vice President in such a scenario. This means that we could have an Obama-Palin White House or a McCain-Biden one. The possibility exists that Dick Cheney may be responsible for selecting the next Vice President, as well!

Other possible scenarios?

The newly elected House is unable to come up with a majority in which case, the burden falls upon the newly elected Senate to choose an acting President until the House can break the deadlock. The Washington Times article assumes in this scenario, that a Democrat-controlled Senate may choose Joe Biden as the acting President, should the House be unable to break the tie by noon on January 20, 2009 – inauguration day.

In another equally far-fetched scenario, neither the House nor the Senate is able to come up with a majority for the President or Vice President by January 20th. In this case, the Speaker of the House, currently Nancy Pelosi, would become the acting President until the whole mess is settled.

Regardless of which scenario you choose, The Political Republican Opinion Blog feels there would be a lengthy series of legal challenges that might leave the office of the President of the United States legally “vacant” for years. If precedent is any indicator, however, the same issue was decided in 1800, when Thomas Jefferson was appointed President by the newly elected House of Representatives in February after an Electoral College tie with Raymond Burr.

A fun read, all-in-all! See the complete article here: 269 tie: An electoral college ‘doomsday’? Oh … and I’m almost done with the previously mentioned National Defense Issue post, coming soon to a computer near you …

Technorati Tags: Biden, electoral college, Joe Biden, John McCain, McCain, nancy pelosi, Palin, pelosi, Political Republican Opinion, Sarah Palin, us constitution, us presidential election

Political Republican Opinion:

Two years ago, Democrats pleaded with voters to elect them in order to turn the economy around and voters responded. In Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s acceptance speech, she stated, “The election of 2006 was a call to change - not merely to change the control of Congress, but for a new direction for our country.”

In the two years since Democrats have taken over with a majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, gasoline prices have risen from an average of $2.19 per gallon to a high of $4.11 per gallon before “falling” to today’s average price of $3.83 per gallon. That’s a whopping 74% increase.

Barack Obama, the Democratic Party’s Presidential nominee, has said that he “would have preferred a more gradual increase” in gas prices. I think the rest of America would agree with The Political Republican Opinion blog, that we would have preferred no increase at all!

The up and down roller coaster of the Dow Jones Industrial average has now reached a level of more than 1,000 points below the level that it was at when the Democrats took control of both houses of the Congress. The median average home price has fallen from $236,200 to $212,400 during that same time span. So, while our transportation costs have gone up, the price of our homes has gone down. What else is important in the everyday lives of Americans? Hmmm … let me see … oh, yes, food!

The cost of flour has risen 70%, bread has gone up 40%, potatoes are 40% higher, and margarine is almost 39% more expensive. Add to that the fact that electricity is 20% higher and heating oil is 27% more expensive and Americans have struggled even more with the Democrats in charge. The really scary part is that we have watched all of this happen in just two years!

Now, with banks and insurance companies going bust and Americans’ investments, savings and retirement funds hanging in the balance, what is the Democrats’ answer? … to just go home!

Lawmakers say that they will probably take no action before their planned adjournments, beginning Sept. 26 for the House and a week later for the Senate. They haven’t ruled out returning after the Nov. 4 elections, but they would rather wait until after the elections and take the matter up next year unless Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke call for their help.

Democratic Senate majority leader Harry Reid said yesterday, “No one knows what to do. We are in new territory here. This is a different game. We’re not here playing soccer, basketball or football, this is a new game and we’re going to have to figure out how to do it.” As usual, Democrats have no problem criticizing “Republican leadership” for the crisis but have no answers of their own. Oh … except “we need CHANGE.”

And what does Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi think of Congress’ decision to make no decisions? She defended the latest Congressional vacation, saying that they could always return “if there’s a need to.”

“IF THERE’S A NEED TO?” I seem to recall this was the same position Pelosi took when a large majority of the American people were begging for Congress to allow more drilling in and off the coast of the United States. She would not allow a vote and sent the House home. What have they done since then? Absolutely nothing!

Who do these people get their work ethic from, George Costanza? It’s time to wake up America! Democrats, Republicans and Independents surely must see that this is not leadership; this is running away when times get tough – the same position, incidentally, that Democrats promoted when things were not going swimmingly well in Iraq.

Republicans, it’s time to get rid of the do-nothings in Washington by getting to the polls and taking the House and Senate back. It’s time to unseat these horrible leaders and replace them with people who will do what responsible adults do when there is work to be done. If it is really important, real leaders stay at work until the job is done!

The Political Republican Opinion blog welcomes your comments …

Technorati Tags: barack obama, harry reid, nancy pelosi, obama, pelosi, Political Republican Opinion, reid, us presidential election