Nancy Pelosi

The long-delayed supplemental war funding measure was delayed again in Congress last week, this time by an internal struggle within the Democratic caucus. Moderate and conservative Democrats, known as Blue Dogs, objected to the leadership's plan to load up the bill with billions in extra spending items. The Blue Dogs are upset with Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) plan to include spending for unemployment benefit extensions and a new entitlement for troop education, a new GI Bill, in the bill. They fear a backlash against the increased spending and the use of the supplemental as a vehicle to score electoral points in their districts, which are conservative in nature. Republicans also object to the supplemental on procedural grounds. Democrats have by-passed the appropriations committee in drafting the legislation and are not allowing minority Republicans to offer proposals on the measure. Republicans have retaliated by forcing procedural votes in protest.

Democrats took control of the House in 2006 partly on the strength of wins in Republican leaning districts. There are thirty-four Democrats serving in the House from such districts, and their re-election in the fall is critical to Democrats hopes of keeping control of the chamber. Accordingly, the Blue Dogs' concerns are being given great weight by the speaker. "Their concerns are very legitimate," Pelosi said, "They must be addressed." Pelosi also must deal with the anti-war liberal members of her caucus, however, and they are not likely to support the war funding bill without inducements like the unemployment benefits. It makes for a perilous balancing act for the Speaker, one that she lost to the White House's veto in last year's supplemental war funding battle.

Now that Iraq Commander Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker have made their report to Congress, President Bush will announce in a speech at the White House today that he is accepting their advice and ordering a halt to U.S troop withdrawals this summer. Petraeus has counseled the pause in troop drawdowns for a 45-day assessment of Iraqi security forces ability to maintain security gains made by the troop surge. The president will announce that he will not order any additional troop withdrawals until mid-September at the earliest, depending on conditions on the ground.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the text of an angry letter she addressed to President Bush in anticipation of his remarks.

"General Petraeus admitted on Tuesday that `we haven't turned any corners, we haven't seen any lights at the end of the tunnel' [in Iraq]. The American people are entitled to know when they will receive a more hopeful report than the one provided by General Petraeus, and what changes in policy you will make to achieve it before you leave office."

But just last week, Pelosi warned Gen. Petraeus not to, "put a shine on recent events," in Iraq, particularly in Basra. Apparently, from the text and tone of her letter, however, the Speaker wishes he had not heeded that warning.

While Democrats fret over what the drawn out presidential primaries might mean for their White House prospects, at least they can find some consolation in the congressional races. Republicans are retiring left and right (29 in the House alone!) and the Dems are raising big bucks and ready to strike.

The Cook Political Report predicts Democrats could pick up five to 10 seats in the House and three to six seats in the Senate.

Those kind of numbers, if they actually play out, are enough to make Nancy Pelosi do the macarena on Main Street.

"It's certainly a larger gain that I would have predicted on election night in 2006," said David Wasserman, the House editor of the Cook Political Report. "I would have said there was going to be some sort of Republican rebound, and the question was how large the Republican rebound was going to be."

Now it turns out there might not be a Republican rebound at all. Then again, who knows? After all, it is only April and nearly everybody, from pundits to pols on both sides (just not those in the Clinton camp), seem to agree that the long battle between Hillary and Obama risks making both candidates look bad and could affect turnout on election day.

Maryland congressman Chris Van Hollen put it this way: "If the Democratic presidential primary doesn't focus on what unites us and focuses on what divides us, it could create problems in November." Republicans are banking on it.

A while back, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said superdelegates should fall in line with pledged delegates and not "overturn the will of the voters." On ABC's "This Week," Pelosi said:

If the votes of the superdelegates overturn what's happened in the elections, it would be harmful to the Democratic Party.

Pelosi has changed her mind. She now says the Democratic nomination battle should "run its course."

These superdelegates have the right to vote their conscience and who they think would be the better president, or who can win, but they also then should get involved in the campaigns and make their power known there.

I think the election has to run its course. I think that for all that I have said about respecting the will of the people that the inference to be drawn from that is that we have to continue the election in terms of hearing from the people.

Pelosi came under criticism from some of Hillary Clinton's people who thought she was trying to run Clinton out of the race. The Speaker says their "letter wasn't important" in her flip-flop on the role of superdelegates.

Money is the "mother's milk of politics." It strains credulity for Pelosi to suggest that Democratic fat cats' implicit threat to withhold contributions didn't influence her decision.

The highest-ranking Democrat in the World, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, has put the kibosh on the idea of a Democratic ticket that consists of any combinations of the words Barack and Hillary. See the video below.

She goes on to say that whatever ticket the Dems do come up with will be a dream ticket, just not that Dream Ticket. Pelosi also declined to elaborate on the basis for her statement, beyond knowing "how these things work."

It's all very intriguing and mysterious. With Obama holding a nearly insurmountable lead, is Pelosi hinting that Obama might actually take my advice and nominate Pelosi as VP? She's certainly more than qualified, and since she is currently two heartbeats away from the Presidency, has ostensibly crossed that "Commander-in-Chief" threshold.

After the jump, quick analysis of the other possibilities, and why "A Dream Ticket" is so important to the Democrats' success in November.

House Democrats hammered through new rules that will create an outside ethics panel, called The Office of Congressional Ethics, late yesterday. The vote passed 229-182.

The move appears to be cosmetic since the panel will refer cases to the House ethics committee, which, if the past is any indication of what we should expect, is where each case referred will die a quiet death. The panel will be made up of six people chosen by each party's highest ranking House member. Lobbyists and federal employees can not serve.

Blogger Paul Kiel at TPMMuckraker posted some highly amusing comments from those opposed to the panel, among them Republican Representative Todd Tiahrt, who said, "If you have a single ounce of self-preservation, you'll vote no."

Yesterday House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would continue her pursuit of contempt charges passed by the House of Representatives against former White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and former counsel Harriet Miers even after the Bush administration is over. Attorney General Michael Mukasey said he would not prosecute the matter. Pelosi plans an appeal of Mukasey's decision.

"This is about the Congress of the United States," Pelosi said, "We can't say that it was important when you had a Republican president and not important when you had a Democratic president. ... We might as well shred the constitution."

Blogger GottaLaff looks at weather pushing for contempt is a suitable substitution for impeachment, which Pelosi took off the table in 2006.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi today called on the Justice Department to impanel a federal grand jury and investigate whether White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers should be prosecuted for contempt of Congress. The House voted to hold the two in contempt before the President's Day recess for failing to respond to subpoenas issued by the House Judiciary Committee. The committee was seeking Bolten and Miers' testimony in its investigation into the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys last year.

Pelosi addressed a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, asserting that the officials were obliged to comply with the Congressional subpoenas, regardless of any instructions given to them by the president.

For the first time in history, the Federal budget will exceed three trillion dollars in fiscal year 2009, according to an official in the White House Office of Management and Budget. The president's budget proposal is expected to be made public next week but is already triggering howls of protest for the cost savings in contains, even as overall spending continues to go up.

The budget will call for savings in Medicare and Medicaid in the form of reductions of the rate of growth of these programs. Democrats call that a cut, although both programs will spend more in FY 2009 than they did the previous year. Together, the programs make up for 20% of federal spending. Discretionary spending, on items not mandated by law, an ever shrinking portion of the federal budget, will be held to an increase of less than one percent by the proposal.

In July, the House Judiciary Committee approved contempt citations against White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers. Bolten and Miers failed to testify about the U.S. attorney scandal despite being subpoenaed when the Bush administration invoked executive privilege.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi appeared close to allowing a full House vote on the contempt citation as recently as last week. Today, however, Politico reports that Democrats are now planning to postpone the floor vote indefinitely. Senior Democrats believe that pressing the issue now would "step on their message" of bipartisanship while congressional leaders and the White House are working together on an emergency economic stimulus package.