Nancy Pelosi Uses Transfer of Power Remarks to Defend Her Record as Speaker of the House Video 1/5/11

DCCC chair: Our 2012 agenda will be making Pelosi Speaker again
The reknowned political satirist Tom Lehrer once declared that Henry Kissinger’s Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 made political satire redundant.  After reading about the DCCC’s new strategy to win back the House in 2012, I must admit that for the first time in my life I feel a bit of sympathy with the general sentiment.  Guess who Rep. Steve Israel, the DCCC chair, wants to make as his poster girl for 2012? House Democrats’ goal is to make Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) the Speaker of ...

Democrats Turned Away From Pelosi in Record Numbers in Ceremonial Vote
The abandonment of Rep. Nancy Pelosi by 19 Democrats in the pro-forma vote for speaker of the House marked a breakdown in party loyalty of historic measure, according to the Washington Post. Not since 1913, when 23 Republicans bolted from the GOP's speaker nominee, has a Party Leader suffered so many defections, Congressional Research Service records show. Of the 19 Democrats who didn't support Pelosi, one voted "present" and the other 18 cast Protest ballots for some other Democratic House memb...

Underwhelmed by Speaker Boehner
Bill Daley: Is it about competence or ideology? Is Darrell Issa the new Joe McCarthy? Nancy Pelosi spoke of combating Climate Change, ensuring college affordability, expanding access to Health Care, ending the war in Iraq. Newt Gingrich envisioned a Balanced Budget amendment, welfare reform, Tax Cuts, Deregulation, term limits. John Boehner promised... well, not very much. The 112th Congress, he said, will not "kick the can" or "fall short." It will be "the people's House," a place where "we ca...

What Do You Know? Nancy Pelosi Was A Historic Speaker!
This seems like the perfect punctuation mark to close out the reign of the hands-wodn worst Speaker of the House in our nation’s history. With 19 Democrats withholding support from Nancy Pelosi for House Speaker on Wednesday, it represented the largest defection from a party’s speaker nominee in nearly a century. The resistance in the Democratic Party to back now-former Speaker Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the ceremonial first vote of the 112th Congress registered higher than at any poi...

GOP fundraises off specter of another term of 'Speaker Pelosi'
House Republicans' campaign arm sought on Thursday to raise money off of the possibility that Nancy Pelosi could become House Speaker again someday. In an email sent out to supporters, National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Executive Director Guy Harrison "urgently" warns readers about a comment Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) Chairman Steve Israel (N.Y.) made on Wednesday. "The new Chairman of the DCCC, Rep. Steve Israel, has decided to take a page from the NRCC...

Nancy Pelosi once again makes history
Via WaPo’s The Fix blog : With 19 Democrats withholding support from Nancy Pelosi for House Speaker on Wednesday, it represented the largest defection from a party’s speaker nominee in nearly a century. The resistance in the Democratic Party to back now-former Speaker Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the ceremonial first vote of the 112th Congress registered higher than at any point since 1913, according to data from the Congressional Research Service. That year, which happens to be the last year fo...

Ms. Magazine Pelosi Cover Takes A Dig At Time And Newsweek (PHOTOS)
Ms. magazine is hitting back at Time and Newsweek for putting John Boehner on their covers after he became the presumptive Speaker of the House in the wake of the 2010 Midterm Elections--and they're doing it by putting someone those magazines never featured on their covers during her four years as Speaker: Nancy Pelosi. The cover line? "The Woman Time and Newsweek Won't Put On Their Covers." PHOTO: Pelosi herself mentioned this discrepancy to the New York Times' Deborah Solomon in a November...

Boehner: Spending cuts must accompany debt limit
WASHINGTON—House Speaker John Boehner says any increase in the nation's Debt Limit must include steps to cut federal spending. The Ohio Republican says the country cannot default on its Debt, but neither can it continue to borrow recklessly. His statement comes after the Obama Administration notified lawmakers that the government will reach the current Debt Limit of $14.3 Trillion this spring. The Debt Limit sets a ceiling on the government's borrowing authority. Boehner says in his state...

A Day Later, House Swears-in DeFazio
A rather bizarre scene unfolded Thursday morning in the Capitol as the House of Representatives interrupted its live quorum call to swear-in Rep. Peter Defazio, D-Ore. DeFazio was nowhere to be found Wednesday when the House came to order for the 112th Congress. Multiple calls, emails and a visit to his office failed to yield any explanation as to why he was absent. Now that DeFazio has been sworn-in, the House is now at full membership with 435 members. It was an uncommon move when House Speake...

Dennis Miller revives "Pelosi Galore' for House Speaker's last day Video
"Pelosi Galore", a play on "Pussy Galore" villian  of the James Bond flick,  was revived by conservative comedian, Dennis Miller,  on his Radio Show to  commemorate former Speaker of the House  Nancy Pelosi's much heralded departure. While the roster of good guys and bad guys in Dennis Miller's 'Mansquito' continues to grow, there is one -- announced today -- who is running chills up and down the spines of people of America. Her name? Pelosi Galore . As explained on toda...

Men shave heads to spite genetics
Sandy Poirier, the owner of Shag salon, said he started shaving his head five years ago "when no one else was doing it," and he learned there are new obligations that come with the style. "You have to dress well, be more fashionable, or you're going to look like you don't care," Poirier said. "There should be a Moratorium on the word 'bald.' Everything else is politically correct, why not this?" he said. Santa Monica, Calif., Jan. 6 (UPI) -- Actress Jaime Pressly was arrested in Santa Monica, C...

Constitution reading goes bipartisan
The new Congress kicked off with a reading of the constitution on the floor of the House today, a first in the chamber’s history. Republicans proposed the reading, but it turned into a rare moment of true Bipartisanship on the floor. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) went first, followed by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). House Republicans made the reading a requirement as part of the new Congress’ rules. Initially, there were questi...

Final Tab for Pelosis Speakership: $5.34 Trillion in New DebtOr $3.66 Billion Per Day
Thursday, January 06, 2011 By Terence P. Jeffrey Outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif. speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) (CNSNews.com) - In the 1,461 days that Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) served as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the National Debt increased by a total of $5.343 Trillion ($5,343,452,800,321.37) or $3.66 billion per day ($3.657,394,113.84), according to official Debt number...

Could John Boehner be a Great Speaker?
I have long been Bullish on the man who is now Speaker of the House.  Perhaps, it’s that John Boehner and I grew up not far from one another, he in the Working Class Cincinnati suburb of Reading, I in the more affluent enclave Wyoming just west of the Republican leader’s hometown. Cincinnati folk have always struck me as hard-working, decent Americans, largely respectful of their peers and generally treating people from different backgrounds with dignity.  It is no wonder that th...

On Hardball Israel Ducks Question on Pelosi [VIDEO]
Steve Israel was on 'Hardball' last night, and was asked directly if Democrats are aiming to take back the House with the same leadership--i.e. Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer--in 2012. (Read more...) ...

How Pelosi handed the gavel to Boehner compared to how Boehner handed the gavel to Pelosi.
Byron York points out the difference. One thing I noticed (and York doesn't mention) is that Pelosi made a snide remark about the size of the gavel Boehner picked out for the gavel-passing ritual: I now pass this gavel, which is larger than most gavels here but the gavel of choice of Mr. Speaker Boehner…Now, my ears have been tuned by decades of immersion in Feminism and Freudianism, and I say that's an intentional reference to the phallus and the will toward domination it symbolizes. Nan...

Pelosi Loses Support of 19 Democrats for Speaker
Nineteen Democrats — including two California Members — registered Protest votes against Nancy Pelosi’s leadership and publicly supported another Candidate for Speaker during Wednesday’s floor vote. Not a Subscriber? To continue reading, sign up for a free trial. House colleagues greet Rep. John Boehner on his way to accept the Speaker’s gavel from Nancy Pelosi on Jan. 5. Featuring more than 80 pages of analysis, this essential issue provides Election Results and detai...

Video: Speaker John Boehner's Opening remarks to the US House of Representatives:
Today, January 5th 2011 Representative John Boehner took over as Speaker of the United States House or Representatives from Nancy Pelosi. His opening Speech as the Speaker of the House: Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Share to Google Buzz Please Support COMMON CENTS by doing your Christmas Shopping here. Thank You!! ...

House Republicans Stage a Mighty Expensive Opening Scene
We can get used to a daily dose of hypocrisy from newly minted Speaker of the House John Boehner. Already, House Republicans have spent most of the new year hammering the two themes we can expect to hear constantly over the next two years—Fiscal Responsibility and reverence for the Constitution—while vowing laws that flout both principles. They’ve passed rules saying any spending bill must identify a matching Budget Cut, but have exempted their massively expensive (and purely t...

Obama challenges Republicans on US debt
Newly empowered US Republicans faced stiff early challenges as President Barack Obama pressed them to raise the US Debt Limit and his Democratic Senate allies vowed to defend his policies. One day after Republicans took over the House of Representatives, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner formally asked politicians to let the US government to borrow more money, the opening shot in a political war over the giant US Debt. Geithner warned in a letter to senior members of Congress that failure to r...

Conservative leader urges House to follow through on spending
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Influential conservative Dick Armey on Thursday urged the new House to take leadership in reducing the size of government and reining in spending by cutting "obnoxious programs" out of the Budget. Armey, a Republican and Veteran Washington insider who was the House Majority Leader in the late 1990's, has emerged as a force within the Tea Party movement. His FreedomWorks political action group has given direction, know-how, and financial support to many within Congress' rec...

GOP first order of business: strip D.C. residents of a vote
Any illusions of a non-partisan 112th Congress were wiped away yesterday with passage of new House rules. In a 225-188 vote along party lines, House Republicans made sweeping changes to how business will be conducted this year. Of particular interest to Taxpayers of Washington, D.C. should be the loss yesterday of representation in Congress. Being that the District of Columbia is not a state, it has never had a floor vote on the final passage of any Legislation. But like Puerto Rico, and the ter...

Speaker Boehner Dismisses CBOs Report Health Care Repeal Increases Deficit
ABC News’ John R. Parkinson reports:  Speaker of the House John Boehner dismissed a report by the Congressional Budget Office that found that repealing the Health Care law would increase the federal Deficit and warned that the “best Health Care system in the world is going to go down the drain” if Congress fails to Repeal the law. Earlier Thursday, the Congressional Budget Office released a preliminary analysis that the Repeal of the Health Care Reform law, including reduced spend

Conservative leader urges House to follow through on spending
Armey, a Republican and Veteran Washington insider who was the House Majority Leader in the late 1990's, has emerged as a force within the Tea Party movement. His FreedomWorks political action group has given direction, know-how, and financial support to many within Congress' recent wave of rookie conservative members. "Reduce the size of the government," he urged the new Congress. "It's big. It's obnoxious. It's counterproductive. Being in control of this monster that has been out of control, ...

Another House GOP Member Opts Out Of Congressional Health Plan
Another House GOP Member Opts Out Of Congressional Health Plan Moments ago, during a hearing in the Rules Committee, another Republican who supports repealing the Affordable Care Act announced that he would forgo the Federal Employers’ Health Benefits Plan (FEHBP) — the exchange that offers coverage at reduced rates to federal employees. Rep. Richard Nugent’s (R-FL) decision now brings the total number of Republicans who are staying out of Congressional coverage to seven, or...