Getting to Know Nancy Pelosi

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20061029/news_mz1e29caldwe.html

GOP: Pelosi's party too liberal for America

By Robert J. Caldwell
October 29, 2006


Democrats are trying to frame the midterm elections as a referendum on an unpopular war and an unpopular president. Republicans say this election is really a choice between a mainstream GOP and congressional Democrats who are well to the left of the American electorate.

Do the Republicans have a case? Based on the abundantly documented public record, they do. This is especially true on the House side where political gerrymandering has favored election of the most liberal Democrats. Nancy Pelosi's party should be having a very tough time, indeed, selling itself as a mainstream alternative to congressional Republicans.

Start with Pelosi herself, the San Francisco Democrat and current House minority leader who would almost certainly become speaker of the House if the Democrats take control Nov. 7. As speaker, Pelosi would be second in the line of presidential succession after Vice President Cheney. Moreover, as speaker she would control all legislation in the House and be by far the most powerful member of the United States Congress.

Polls show that most Americans know nothing about Pelosi and many don't even know who she is. With the election barely a week away, it's time they learned.

Pelosi is fond of deflecting the “San Francisco Democrat” charge by noting that as a mother and grandmother, she's hardly the left-wing icon figure her critics allege. But there is no denying her voting record over eight terms as one of the most liberal members of the House of Representatives. Pelosi's lifetime rating by the Americans for Democratic Action, the liberal benchmark for members of Congress, is 96 percent. Her lifetime rating by the counterpart American Conservative Union is 2 percent.

Equally relevant are Pelosi's views and voting record on issues directly related to national security and the war against terrorism. Less than a year after 9/11, Pelosi said publicly that she didn't consider the United States at war. This year, she said that national security should not be a campaign issue in the 2006 midterm elections.

Pelosi voted repeatedly against the counterterrorism Patriot Act, opposed creation of the Department of Homeland Security and voted against a resolution condemning the leak of the National Security Agency's highly classified program for monitoring terrorist communications. Pelosi also reportedly told colleagues that she would appoint as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee overseeing America's counterterrorism efforts Rep. Alcee Hastings, an ultra-liberal and at least formerly sleazy Florida Democrat. Hastings was impeached and removed as a federal judge by a Democratic-controlled Congress in 1988-89 on bribery and obstruction of justice charges.