Hoyer to Pelosi -- stand up to the Senate

Stand up to the Senate? Hell, she couldn't stand up to the Republicans in the House. But that's the advice Steny Hoyer is giving Pelosi in the aftermath of the Pork-A-Palooza. Hoyer thinks that if she makes us own up to any obstruction that it'll hurt us. Trust us, Steny. It won't hurt us as much as the stimulus will hurt you guys:

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) is pushing Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to take a harder line with the Senate after a trio of Republican senators forced Congress to trim billions from the $787 billion economic stimulus package.

It’s not clear how far Pelosi is willing to go in standing up to the Senate — or, realistically, what effect Hoyer and Pelosi combined could have in the face of the 60-vote hurdle Senate Democrats face.

But after last week’s stimulus votes, Hoyer called on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to force Senate Republicans to mount actual filibusters if they want to stand in the way of bills “so that the American people can see who’s undermining action.”

And in a private conversation with Pelosi, aides say Hoyer reminded the speaker that they’d talked previously about tolerating Senate strong-arming on the stimulus and on children’s health insurance — two Democratic priorities — but then holding their own on future legislation.

Pelosi expressed some agreement, aides said, and she has asked her staff to perform an after-action report about negotiations over the massive package of spending and tax cuts.

But at the same time, Pelosi has voiced public sympathy for the plight Reid faces in the Senate; with just 58 members caucusing with the Democrats — 59 if Al Franken prevails in Minnesota — Reid is always going to need some Republican support to overcome GOP filibuster threats.

“This is the legislative process,” Pelosi told MSNBC last week. “We act. They act. We reconcile. And in order to get their votes, they had to make certain changes in the legislation.”

Lady, you didn't get a single GOP vote in the House, and you got three RINO votes in the Senate. That's not the "legislative process." Your side decided to write the bill all on your own. So don't come to us with this BS that both sides worked together. That's a bloody lie, and she knows it. But seriously, what influences does the Speaker of the House have over the Senate. Truth be told, none. That's Harry Reid's circus, not hers.

Here's a better idea. Why don't the Democrats actually abide by the legislative process, and work with the GOP? At the very least, if they keep this garbage up, and seal the GOP out of every major piece of legislation, it's going to bite them in 2010 as voters retaliate against a party treating it's majority like a dictator drunk on power. The Blue Dogs have rightly complained about Pelosi's heavy-handed tactics. It's clear to us, and to many others, that Pelosi isn't keen on playing by the rules. She moved quickly after the new Congress convened to shut out any opposition to her rule in the Congress.

While the majority of people were taken in by the rhetoric of shysters in 2008, they're not stupid. They're going to see what it's like with the Democrats in absolute control of the government. It's not going to be pretty, and come 2010 they may suffer a well-deserved backlash.

Publius II