Speaker Pelosi seems a tad miffed

We saw Hillary go after someone at a recent campaign spot where she accused that person of being a plant, and even questioned the man's intelligence. That was last week. Today Dana Milbank at the WaPo shows us that Speaker Pelosi isn't exactly thrilled with her base:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was in a determinedly good mood when she sat down to lunch with reporters yesterday. She entered the room beaming and, over the course of an hour, smiled no fewer than 31 times and got off at least 23 laughs.

But her spirits soured instantly when somebody asked about the anger of the Democratic "base" over her failure to end the war in Iraq.

"Look," she said, the chicken breast on her plate untouched. "I had, for five months, people sitting outside my home, going into my garden in San Francisco, angering neighbors, hanging their clothes from trees, building all kinds of things -- Buddhas? I don't know what they were -- couches, sofas, chairs, permanent living facilities on my front sidewalk."

Unsmilingly, she continued: "If they were poor and they were sleeping on my sidewalk, they would be arrested for loitering, but because they have 'Impeach Bush' across their chest, it's the First Amendment."

(Um, I thought that Democrats stood up for the homeless? I guess they do only when they're kept int he background as a partisan tool or talking point, but God forbid they camp out on her doorstep.)

Though opposed to the war herself, Pelosi has for months been a target of an antiwar movement that believes she hasn't done enough. Cindy Sheehan has announced a symbolic challenge to Pelosi in California's 8th Congressional District. And the speaker is seething.

"We have to make responsible decisions in the Congress that are not driven by the dissatisfaction of anybody who wants the war to end tomorrow," Pelosi told the gathering at the Sofitel, arranged by the Christian Science Monitor. Though crediting activists for their "passion," Pelosi called it "a waste of time" for them to target Democrats. "They are advocates," she said. "We are leaders."

See, we're the little people, and they're the powerful ones. We should just shut up, and let them do what they want, when they want, and to Hell with our opinions. Notice that she's not targeting us conservatives, but rather her base. This is telling. For the last forty-plus years, the Democrats have moved slowly to the Left. In 2004 MoveOn.numbnuts activists proclaimed thay had "bought" the Democrat party and that they were the ones running the show.

People like Speaker Pelosi embraced the nutroots. Howard Dean embraced them. Hillary has tried to (though the nutroots treat her more like a leper than a candidates; dissatisfied with her stance on the war), and while a few may be coming around to her, the majority aren't. But when they start caterwauling about the Democrats failing to make good on promises, this is the reaction they get from the party's leaders. The "I'm sick of being picked on" syndrome so common amongst those on Capitol Hill.

Madame Speaker, you wanted the job and you wanted the majority. Your base gave you the House and your caucus gave you the job. You knew the job was dangerous when you took it. Now quit whining like a spoiled brat.

Publius II