Minister of Science and Chief Protector of the Faith

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Agent Nancy Pelosi in "Last Chance for Democracy"


In powerful new role, Pelosi recasting herself
WASHINGTON – When Nancy Pelosi appeared on national television on the morning after voters returned the House to Democratic hands, Leon Rebibo's phone started ringing in Los Angeles.

A pearl wholesaler, Mr. Rebibo fielded calls from more than four dozen women of all political stripes who wanted a muted, multicolor strand of South Sea Tahitian pearls, just like the one Ms. Pelosi was wearing.

"I'm very disappointed the Democrats won, but I absolutely love her necklace. If my husband hears me, he's going to kill me," Mr. Rebibo recalled one Republican woman whispering into the phone.

As Ms. Pelosi prepares to be sworn in Jan. 4 as the first female speaker of the House, she has become an object of fascination and curiosity in political circles and beyond.

Barbara Walters interviewed her as one of the year's 10 most fascinating people. People magazine has written about her twice in recent weeks. Washington hairstylists debate whether her conservative, blow-dry cut works. An article in a Palm Springs, Calif., newspaper ran with the headline: "How to Get the Nancy Pelosi Look." (Answer: an Armani suit.)

Only weeks ago, Republicans were doing their best in the heat of the campaign to paint Ms. Pelosi, 66, as a conservative's nightmare – a San Francisco liberal out of touch with the mainstream.

But more recently, a poll measuring political charisma showed that she had "dramatically improved her standing" with the public, sponsors of the survey said, with voters knowing her better and feeling warmer toward her.

[...] "She is trying to dispatch the stereotype put forth by Republicans," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. "The advantage she has is the country didn't know her before. Her challenge will be to take votes cast against Republicans and the war in Iraq and transform them into votes for the Democratic Party in 2008."

[...] On Friday, a "People's House" event is planned at the Capitol, where Ms. Pelosi will meet a broader group of well-wishers.

The cost of the events will be covered by campaign donations, except the People's House, which is paid for by congressional funds. The total cost is not clear, aides said.

Four months ago, Ms. Pelosi barely registered on the name-recognition scale, which served her well at the time; Republican attempts to demonize her fell flat because few Americans knew who she was. Now, many more do.

[...] But in the meantime, all eyes are on Ms. Pelosi, who is taking her place in political history, not to mention popular culture.

On a recent Friday, Leon Rebibo's family-owned Pearl Source in downtown Los Angeles unveiled "the Nancy Pelosi" – a replica of her Tahitian pearls made by designers who studied videotapes of the speaker-to-be. They will sell for $5,999 – a bargain compared with what Mr. Rebibo figures the real thing is worth. Dallas News

After they take control of Congress next month, Democrats want to roll back tax breaks that reward the oil industry for expanding refineries and drilling inside the United States.

House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, has vowed to repeal "the multibillion-dollar subsidies for Big Oil" during the first 100 hours of the new session of the House. Democrats are expected to push to eliminate a handful of tax cuts for the oil and gas industry, but avoid more controversial proposals, such as raising mileage standards for SUVs.

But the Senate is another story. There, leading Republicans and a key Democrat have signaled they will vigorously oppose any changes in the tax laws that benefit oil and gas.

Pelosi and other Democrats say that tax deductions established during the last two years confer financial relief to an industry that doesn't need it. sfgate.com

Since she's the human embodiment of what right-wing talk show hosts refer to as (cue theme music from "Psycho") the extreme agenda of San Francisco values, people all over the country are curious as to what exactly are these alarming values? Glad you asked. Pull up a chair, plop the kids in front of "CSI: Topeka" and let me tell you about Ms Pelosi and the den of iniquity she represents that serves as my home, the city named after Saint Francis of Assisi.

For those of you who can't wait to get Nancy Pelosi down on the ground to shave her head and expose her horns, I regret to inform you they aren't there. She's a kindly old grandma now, and although her smile does look like some fiend is twisting a knobby pole inserted up her butt, the ironic part is, in San Francisco, this supposedly frighteningly extreme liberal is considered a moderate and often is protested by leftist factions for planting herself too deep in the mainstream and selling out. And yeah, some of those factions also believe the same is true of Fidel.

The best way to analyze "The City," as we presumptively call ourselves, is to look to the movies. Like in "The Wizard of Oz," when Dorothy says, "we're not in Kansas anymore," that's our motto. Then, at the end of "Peter Pan," where Tinker Bell almost dies and the only thing that can save her is audience applause. Well, that's us too. We're not Kansas and we clap for fairies. So what? Big deal. Who cares?

San Francisco beliefs center on the rights of the individual. Our biggest moral flaw is we hate judgmental people, a bit of an internal fallacy, I'll admit. We go out of our way not to place restrictions on people or their actions or religions or appearances. When you think about it, what they're really afraid of is the freedoms the citizens of San Francisco enjoy. That's right, they hate us for our freedoms. wnewsj.com

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2 Comments:

At Tue Dec 26, 11:52:00 PM, Blogger Becca said...

So that's how democrats can win over the republicans...conservative but shiny jewelry. I wish we had known that sooner.

 
At Mon Jan 01, 11:47:00 AM, Blogger Dr. Zaius said...

Members of the GOP are always suckers for items that depict status or wealth.

 

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