Pelosi gets revenge against one of the Dem rebels

[TexasTowelie]

Source: Politico

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi exacted revenge against one of her most outspoken detractors Tuesday night, blocking Rep. Kathleen Rice from landing a seat on the high-profile House Judiciary Committee.

Pelosi lobbied for other members to join the panel over Rice, leaving the third-term New York Democrat off a list of her preferred members for the committee during a tense closed-door meeting Tuesday night, according to multiple sources. The effort came despite a full-court push from the New York delegation to secure a spot for Rice, a former prosecutor, on the panel that oversees everything from impeachment to guns to immigration.

The push by Pelosi was seen as payback by many in the room after Rice was one of the main megaphones behind a campaign to block the California Democrat from becoming speaker again.

“She was boxed out and the result was cooked before we walked in the room,” said a source in the room. “If you went by seniority then yes [she would have got the position]. But that’s not what happened. Scores being settled was first priority.“

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/15/pelosi-rice-judiciary-committee-1102772

[brush]

1. An important message was sent. Perhaps this is one reason that trump wasn't able to tempt...

the group of Dems he targeted with lunch in an attempt to divide the Dem caucus. None of them accepted.

Thank God Speaker Pelosi knows how to maintain unity in this critical time for the country.

The miscalculation of the insurgents against the Speaker is still amazing to me. They didn't have a chance to succeed. Now consequences have been meted out.

[TheBlackAdder]

61. That Politico article seemed like it was written by a catty high school paper editor.

[Calista241]

64. Politics and committee assignments have been like this forever.

Pelosi isn't an effective speaker and vote whipper because she's good at baking cookies. As her daughter said recently, Nancy Pelosi will cut your head off and you won't even know you're bleeding.

[marble falls]

2. After we sort out Trump and get back into the WH, we need to look at our leadership.

[groundloop]

9. Our leadership is just fine.

[marble falls]

60. Everything is fine. Thats why we have so many declared candidates for POTUS ...

and an army of undeclared hopefuls behind them. Shouldn't we be looking at making our close wins in the House more solid? We'll probably need two elections to take the Senate. Does any body doubt we can take the WH? Fortunately we have a talented, committed bech of possible Presidents.

[Me.]

28. And Why Would That Be?

[leftynyc]

37. Nothing wrong with our leadership

If you're going to shoot the king/queen, you better not miss. They missed. I'm loving that none one democrat went to that lunch yesterday where donnie wanted to peel off support - that shows unity and strength and that's because of Nancy Pelosi.

[onetexan]

68. second that

[shanny]

44. +1

[democratisphere]

77. There ain't a better Democratic leader on planet Earth than Nancy Pelosi!

[Apollyonus]

84. Why get rid of something that is working just fine? n/t

[riversedge]

3. oh drats, we do not need stories like this. sigh!

[beachbum bob]

4. price paid for defying the Queen....Rice will be on House dogcatcher committtee and such

[mcar]

5. That's some ridiculous Politico framing

[Kurt V.]

6. Right. i think the speaker isn't into *revenge*

[mcar]

8. Politico is trying to minimize Pelosi

By implying a catfight. Sexist gits.

[Kurt V.]

13. +1

[ancianita]

17. +1

[2naSalit]

36. +1

[zipplewrath]

7. Well, extreme anyway

I suspect there was more going on than just Pelosi getting revenge. There are alot of considerations such as spreading things around the country, including new members, making sure a wide range of views are represented. I'm fairly certain Rice didn't help herself, but Pelosi probably needed more than just that to get support from alot of other members.

[onetexan]

69. agree, Nancy didn't get reelected to the Speakership by being petty

considering her staying power she's had since she entered the political foray, i'm sure there's alot of respect for her amongst Dems ranks as well as her constituents and the public. Engaging in such petty behavior would have not gone noticed by her colleagues.

[Blue_Tires]

19. Now that the Dems are in power again

we need to be ready for daily nonstop hot takes from the usual suspects about how fractured and disorganized the Dems allegedly are and how we have no unity and no ideas and won't ever be able to pass anything because of inter-party schisms and how Democrat 'A' has a lifelong petty vendetta against Democrat 'B' because someone forgot to tip the Starbucks barista, etc, etc...

As if Pelosi wasn't a juicy enough target, having AOC in the spotlight now is like catnip for these mooks -- I promise you that 70% of all stories written about Dems in the next two years will be "Fill-in-the-blank has a grudge against Pelosi/AOC (or vice-versa) and Congressional Dems are hopelessly splintered!"

[mcar]

20. This exactly

[Farmer-Rick]

51. So True

It's a story you expect from people trying to tear apart the Democratic party. People who want to see infighting and hate. I fell for some of those stories during Hillary's campaign. Not any more. It maybe true but is it worse than what the RepubliCONS and Russia are doing?

[Kittycow]

58. ... and I have to get daily non-stop emails from my elderly mother

about Look what the Democrats are doing now

[Rizen]

82. Politico like sensationalist reporting

[mcar]

83. Tiger Beat on the Potomac

That's what Charlie Pierce calls it.

[RAB910]

10. I like the job Pelosi is doing this time around

She is doing much better than the first time.

That said, I am not a fan of vindictiveness

[yardwork]

16. It's not vindictive. It's effective leadership.

Politico's spin is typically anti-Democratic.

[RAB910]

22. There are certainly a variety of effective leadership styles

I just don't subscribe to any that involve punishing those that didn't support your efforts to become the leader

[yardwork]

25. And you're not Speaker of the House. You have no idea what's required.

This type of assumption that Democratic leaders are (insert negative judgement based on zero knowledge and understanding) is destroying the country.

[RAB910]

29. Can you explain why she would leave a former County District Attorney off this judicial committee?

Seems rather unusual

[Calista241]

65. Perhaps there were other people more qualified or who had a better business case for being on the

committee. Maybe those people didn't piss off the most powerful person in their chamber that has outsize influence on committee assignments.

[RAB910]

66. Sounds like you are sort of agreeing that Pelosi was being vindictive

[mr_lebowski]

78. I took it as 'admitting it's a possibility' ...

I don't think any of us here have a clue what really goes into the 'job' of SotH, what works, what doesn't, what's respected (and by whom) and what's not, etc. It's pretty arcane stuff.

That said, I rather doubt that 'what happened' was in any way 'unusual', put it like that. And Politico seems to want to frame it as such, for their own ends, I'd imagine.

[George II]

27. This is not punishing. This is putting people in positions where they are best suited and....

....can get useful experience for the future.

Politico's characterization is way off base. Unless their reporters were in the meetings where Pelosi and her House leaders made their decisions, calling it "revenge" is just unreasonable speculation.

[RAB910]

31. How is a former County District Attorney not best suited

for the judiciary committee?

[2naSalit]

38. When, perhaps, there's an even more qualified candidate?

[RAB910]

45. like Lou Correa or has no legal or law experience?

[George II]

39. Look at the current members of the Committee. First, none are relative newcomers...

...(Rice has been in Congress for only four years) and there already are two members from the New York City Metropolitan area - Chairman Jerrold Nadler and Hakeem Jeffries.

Which one of those should she bump?

[RAB910]

46. Lou Correa has zero legal or law experience

[BeyondGeography]

50. False choice there, FL now has three members on the committee

Pelosi argued that New York was already well represented on the panel, both with its chairman, Rep. Jerry Nadler, and House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries. But Rice backers point out that if that’s the case, why did Pelosi recommend Florida Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a freshman lawmaker with far less seniority than Rice, for the panel when two other Floridians, Reps. Ted Deutch and Val Demings, sit on the committee.

[George II]

55. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is from the Miami area, representing a large Hispanic constituency...

...Ted Deutch is from a district just north of Miami, and Val Demings is from central Florida.

Rice's district butts up against New York City, from where two members already serve - Nadler and Jeffries. Three members within 5-10 miles away is illogical.

[BeyondGeography]

56. Lol

So we’ve moved the goalposts from members per state to geographical proximity of member districts.

[George II]

59. Not at all. My first comment on the geography issue was that there already were two members....

....from the NYC metropolitan area. Rice would be the third if she was named to the Judiciary Committee.

[BeyondGeography]

71. So what was Jeffries smoking, asking for Rice to get a seat on the panel?

Isn't he aware of this new unwritten proximity rule of which you speak?

Stop making this unnecessarily difficult. If Rice had been supportive all along, she wouldn't be taking a back seat to the newbie. Pelosi did what people of her rank need to do from time to time, make opponents pay so that others aren't so quick to get the same idea.

[politicaljunkie41910]

18. Pelosi has a difficult job to do even before the squacking begins within our own Party.

It shouldn't be too much to ask for our own party to try and go a couple of days at the beginning of the new session before the infighting begins. Everyone wants the coveted committee assignments; that's only natural. But let's not do Donald Trump's bidding for him when he's trying to pit us one against the other.

[RAB910]

23. I support Pelosi

That doesn't preclude me from disagreeing with some actions. I am all for her rainning hellfire down on Trump and his fellow anti-American Republicans. I just am not as inclined to see her hurting her fellow Democrats

[yardwork]

26. There aren't an infinite number of committee assignments.

There's a lot of competition for these seats. It's not "hurting" people to assign committee seats based on competence.

[RAB910]

30. Who was more qualified than this former County District Attorney?

[yardwork]

32. I'm sure that you can look that up yourself.

[RAB910]

34. Well if you are going to claim there was a valid reason (other than spite)

to pass over a former County District Attorney for he preferred judiciary committee, I am all ears. Me, I just can't help but think that the people that were appointed lacked this Congress Woman's credentials

[George II]

42. See my post #39. You want her to replace Nadler or Jeffries?

[RAB910]

47. She could have replaced Lou Correa

who has zero law or legal experience

[RAB910]

49. I just did and the first one on the list Lou Correa

has absolutely no law or legal experience

[politicaljunkie41910]

48. There were a number of new House members who had their own agenda, including preventing Nancy

from becoming the next House Speaker. I won't mention names, but thankfully many of them abandoned that idea when they saw it wasn't going to happen. But that doesn't mean they are now Nancy supporters. They didn't even go underground. They're just waiting for their next opportunity. Say what you will about the Repugnants, but when they WIN, everyone falls in line. How else would Mitch McConnell be able to get away with such bullshit as shutting down the entire government and doing Trump's bidding for him, while every member of the GOP falls in line.

Now I don't think that the Dems are or should be a bunch of lackies for their party leaders. But is it too much to ask that they stop shooting themselves in the foot when they win control of the House or the Senate.

[RAB910]

52. What did Kathleen Rice do to Pelosi after she won?

I am not aware of any efforts to undermine Pelosi after she won the Speaker position

[onetexan]

70. Don't be so quick to judge. We don't know if she was deliberately hurting fellow Dems

this could be pure speculation on Politico, a site known to sensationalize and attract readers by putting up such nonsensical stories.

[RAB910]

72. fair point

but having looked into it further the Congresswoman in question was a former county district attorney while others appointed lacked and law or legal experience

[2naSalit]

53. +1

[hatrack]

11. Politics isn't beanbag . . .

[IronLionZion]

12. Politico really wants us to believe Dems are vindictive and petty

[2naSalit]

40. +1

[demmiblue]

57. +1

[Ferrets are Cool]

14. Why are people calling this revenge and vindictive...

it's just smart politics OR smart business. Would YOU want one of your main detractors working on one of your major projects, knowing that they were working against your policies?

[2naSalit]

41. Exactly.

[yardwork]

15. Good. Democrats need to be solid right now.

[FreepFryer]

21. From a New Yorker who knows what's up, three words for the Honorable Speaker: "Next, Max Rose" (n/t)

[Me.]

33. Totally Agree

[lilactime]

24. This is not "revenge." I'd call it foreseeable consequences.

[DeminPennswoods]

80. Yep, actions have consequences

as Rep Rice now realizes, I'm sure.

[stonecutter357]

35. #facknews from Politico/RWNJ's !

[2naSalit]

43. Pretty sexist report implying a catfight...nt

[onecaliberal]

54. I don't see it as revenge. Pelosi is nails, the line must be held.

[madville]

62. The freshman will figure it out

You don't publicly step out of line or you'll suffer the consequences, it's not a hard concept. They may be the ones getting serious primary challengers if they really piss off the wrong people.

[awesomerwb1]

63. Ok everyone

IT'S POLITICO.

They like to stir up ***t for clicks.

[FSogol]

67. LOL, just reading the subject line, I knew it was Politico.

Thanks for the laughs.

[emulatorloo]

73. If I had $10 for evertime DU LOSES ITS SHIT over a dumbass Politico "Dems In Dissarry!1!"

article, only to realize in a day or so that it isn’t substantive, I would be a billionaire.

Their formula is a sordid confection of clickbait, negative innuendo/spin backed up by alleged “anonymous” sources

That is not to say Politico can’t provide some decent info, but I always read with a huge boulder of salt.

[FSogol]

74. Exactly. n/t

[WhiteTara]

75. Don't F*ck with NDP!

[Squinch]

76. More Politico bullshit: "The Democrats are FIIIIIIGHTING!!1" That's all they ever say, other

than "Democrats are in DISARRAAAAAY!!!!1"

[niyad]

79. it is very clear that politico really is frightened of Spealer Pelosi.

[workinclasszero]

81. This is a hit piece by Politico against democrats and their leaders

of course.