Nancy Pelosi: “Friends Don’t Let Friends Bend Over”

Nancy Pelosi (D—Vertebrate) thinks some of her fellow Democrats — including Obama — have been doing too much bending, stooping and cheek-spreading, in the desperate hope that Republicans will quit stealing their lunch money and tripping them in the cafeteria. How’s this strategy working out for them? It’s a good thing the Democrats have done so much compromising and appeasing; otherwise Congress would be completely polarized. Rightwing talking heads would be saying terrible things about Obama and congressional Democrats.

Thank God that hasn’t happened.

Rep. Lynn Woolsey said Pelosi will lead Democrats in:

“…pulling on the president's shirttails to make sure that he doesn't move from center-right to far-right. We think if he'd done less compromising in the last two years, there's a good chance we'd have had a jobs bill that would have created real jobs, and then we wouldn't even be worrying about having lost elections.”

Congress still hasn’t acted on the Bush tax cuts. Pelosi wants to be sure Obama doesn’t bend over and “compromise” by making the tax cuts permanent for millionaires. Rep. Elijah Cummings said:

“Pelosi can provide that balance with the White House. Democrats want to make sure that they've got somebody at the table with the president, looking him eye-to-eye and saying basically, 'You've got some people who have been very, very loyal to you — not just progressives but moderates, too — and they truly believe that that's not the right thing to do.’”

He also said Pelosi might enable Obama to play the Good Cop to Pelosi’s Bad Cop:

“In his negotiations with the Republicans, Obama needs to be able to say, 'Look, you say you're not going to compromise, but I've got Nancy Pelosi over here who is very passionate about these issues, and I have to listen to what she's saying.’”