PELOSI SCORES ON LEADERSHIP — MOSTLY
By Renee Schoof
Miami Herald, FL
McClatchy News Service
Oct 21 2007
Political pundits give House Speaker Nancy Pelosi high marks for
holding House Democrats together and getting things done. But she’s
also made some slip-ups.
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi found herself in a tight spot
last week over her support for a resolution condemning the Ottoman
Turks’ slaughter of Armenians more than 90 years ago.
Pelosi didn’t take President Bush’s advice that the resolution would
alienate Turkey, a NATO ally that plays a key support role in the
war in Iraq. About 70 percent of the U.S. military air cargo entering
Iraq goes through Turkey, as do an estimated 3,000 trucks each day.
Turkey, one of America’s closest Muslim allies, responded to the
resolution by recalling its ambassador to the United States —
a stern diplomatic signal — and threatening to chill cooperation
with America in the region.
SUPPORT WITHDRAWN
The result: Many House members found Bush’s argument persuasive
and withdrew their support for the resolution. It started with 226
co-sponsors and a solid majority, but so many dropped off that it’s
now unlikely that Pelosi will even bring it up for a vote.
The drama was an unusual public slip-up for the nation’s first female
speaker, and it’s raised questions about her judgment and priorities.
Still, expert Congress watchers say it doesn’t outweigh her overall
success in holding House Democrats together and getting things done.
But the incident sheds light on how House Democrats operate and the
difficulties that lie ahead for them.
Pelosi, D-Calif., said she has long supported a resolution on the
Armenian genocide. The resolution declared that 1.5 million Armenians
were killed in the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923. Turkish
leaders acknowledge that many died but deny that there was genocide —
the intentional destruction of an entire people.
Pelosi’s spokesman, Brendan Daly, said she didn’t try to persuade
Democrats to vote for it but left it to each member to decide.
Norman J. Ornstein, a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise
Institute, said he doesn’t fault Pelosi. She didn’t orchestrate
the vote but agreed to it after the House Foreign Affairs Committee
passed it. And, Ornstein said, she was listening to Armenian-American
constituents who’ve pressed the resolution for years.
Still, Ornstein conceded, in the end, strong intervention by Bush
and Defense Secretary Robert Gates averted "a major foreign policy
disaster."
Nevertheless, he and other scholars said that generally speaking,
Pelosi has maintained unity among often fractious House Democrats.
The result has been "some pretty responsible legislation," he said,
including ethics and lobbying reform, housing finance reform and a
reduction in interest rates on many student loans.
MINIMUM WAGE HIKE
Pelosi also helped get a minimum wage increase, a high priority for
Democrats, signed into law over opposition from Bush and his fellow
Republicans.
But Pelosi also must consider how much pressure she can put on
politically vulnerable Democrats. Some are freshmen elected largely
on opposition to the Iraq War from districts that otherwise lean
Republican.
"These people are comfortable with the antiwar debates, but when
it shifts to other topics, they might not find their districts as
receptive," said Michael Franc of the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Franc said Pelosi could be more inclusive if she’d reach out more
for the views of low-ranking Democrats and tell committee chairmen
to do the same. But that’s not so easy. Pelosi and Majority Leader
Steny Hoyer, D-Md., must deal with committee chairmen who previously
held powerful positions when Democrats were the majority, and ‘the
speaker can’t easily say, `You won’t be as powerful now,’ " he said.
Still, Pelosi and Hoyer have some power over the chairmen, because
the two top Democrats control which bills get to the House floor.
But that’s complicated, too.
Pelosi wanted her ally, John Murtha, D-Pa., as majority leader,
but House Democrats chose Hoyer. Both Pelosi and Hoyer have their
own loyalists.
EAVESDROPPING BILL
Franc said it was "almost unforgivable" to get so far along on a
bill and then pull it. But that was different, he said, than what
happened with a bill to set rules for government eavesdropping,
which also went missing in action last week.
Republicans used a procedural maneuver to block a vote on the
eavesdropping bill, so Democrats pulled it. The result is likely to
be a week’s delay.
Asked if she saw the two developments as setbacks, Pelosi said:
"No. This is the legislative process."
She predicted that House Democrats have enough votes to prevail on
the eavesdropping bill, which updates the 1978 Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act. On the Armenia resolution, she said, "Congress will
work its will on that."
Rep. David Price, D-N.C., a subcommittee chairman on the Appropriations
Committee and a former political science professor at Duke University,
said Pelosi has good discipline and decisionmaking skills, and that
she’s listened to all.
"She has charm and a winsome manner, but nobody should mistake that
for a lack of toughness," he said.
On Iraq, Pelosi has gotten "plenty of free advice" from the large
Out of Iraq caucus and from moderate Democrats as well, Price said.
The House has passed measures containing a timetable for withdrawal
from Iraq, only to face a veto from President Bush and a failure by
Senate Democrats to muster the 60 votes needed under a procedural rule.
Pelosi has said that Democrats won’t give up trying to end the war.
Price said Democratic leaders would consider attaching conditions
to a war-spending bill and other measures on Iraq that have broad
support and, taken together, could steer policy in a new direction.
Donald Wolfensberger, director of the Congress Project at the Wilson
Center, a Washington research organization, said Pelosi has probably
angered her natural allies in the Out of Iraq Caucus even as she’s
adroitly juggled different factions in her party.
But Wolfensberger said she hasn’t followed through on promises to be
more fair and open than her Republican predecessors were.
Ornstein agreed that Democrats haven’t been as open as they should
be. There have been too many "closed rules" (a procedure for not
allowing amendments, so the House must accept or reject a bill "as is")
and too many bills coming up with little advance notice, he said.
HONEYMOON TIME
Bill Frenzel of the centrist Brookings Institution, a former Republican
congressman from Minnesota, said all speakers do better in their first
year, when members of their party give them special support. Later,
committee chairmen flex their muscles, and the rank and file feel
more independent, especially as elections near.
Things also could change when Democrats take up more controversial
matters, he said.
"So far the speaker has done well," Frenzel said, "but the job is
getting harder every day."