Palin and Pelosi: Worlds Apart in House-Cleaning Methodology
Palin also campaigned for the governorship of Alaska on promises to rein in corruption in her own Republican Party. By the time she had beaten the incumbent governor Murkowski in the primaries and another former governor in the general election, Palin had already proven that she was a courageous reformer for the people. She had resigned a powerful job with the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission because state law forbade her to speak out against fellow commission members. With Palin’s resignation came her whistle-blowing on two members for financial conflicts of interest and other ethics violations, which resulted in their resignations and state-imposed fines against the violators.
One of Palin’s first actions as governor was reaching across party lines and pushing a major bipartisan ethics bill with real teeth. Mrs. Palin called this just the beginning. In her first year in office, she vetoed $268 million in unnecessary construction projects with her line-item veto.
And then, of course, there was the former governor’s new jet, which had become a powerful symbol to Alaskans of state government corruption. Getting rid of it had been one of Palin’s campaign promises and was one of the first things she took care of when assuming office. She first attempted to auction the jet on eBay, in order to save broker fees and get top dollar for the taxpayers. But when minimum bids were not met, she finally concluded the sale through a broker for $2.1 million, which was returned to the Alaska treasury.
Nancy Pelosi also vowed to pass ethics reform ASAP after taking over as speaker, but it took her more than seven months to pass a bill that has been widely criticized for lacking any teeth.
The watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste called Ms. Pelosi’s ethics bill an “unethical” ethics bill, and quoted Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) as saying, “What we have before us today is not a landmark accomplishment, but a landmark betrayal. Instead of draining the swamp, this bill gives the alligators new rights.”
The taxpayer watchdogs at Citizens Against Government Waste summarized Pelosi and Reid’s little house-cleaning venture thusly:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) hailed S. 1 as the “the most sweeping ethics and lobbying reforms in generations.” That hyperbolic generalization obscures the mediocre nature of the final bill. Earmark transparency provisions that had passed as part of S. 1 by a vote of 96-2 in January of 2007 were gutted as a result of a secret, backroom conference deal by Majority Leader Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
Meanwhile, when it was discovered last month that Charlie Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has failed to report or pay taxes on $75,000 income earned on luxury rental properties in the Dominican Republic, Nancy Pelosi stood firmly behind him. When it was suggested that Mr. Rangel ought to step down from his chairmanship, at least until the substantial ethical lapse could be resolved, Ms. Pelosi balked at the idea.
Going up against one’s own party members doesn’t seem to be something Nancy Pelosi has the guts for.
Governor Sarah Palin, in another money-saving decision, declined the services of the former governor’s personal chef and also the chauffeur. Mrs. Palin’s parents were humble school teachers, who no doubt taught frugality as a virtue and that wasting other people’s money was far worse on the sin scale than wasting one’s own.
Nancy Pelosi, on the other hand, sprang from a powerful and wealthy Democratic political family, married a millionaire, is herself a millionaire, and piggy-backed into her Congressional seat more than 20 years ago on the strength of Democratic machine backing. Perhaps these quirky differences with Sarah Palin’s background explain why, in her first year as the speaker of the people’s house, Nancy Pelosi indulged her own lavish tastes to the point of straining taxpayer patience. Palin frugality vs. Pelosi luxury.
According to this summary of Pelosi indulgences, compiled last December by The Hill, Imperious Nancy spent $16,000 on flowers for her offices. She spent 63% more in her inaugural year than her Republican predecessor. In her first year, Nancy Pelosi spent more than $3 million, compared to $1.8 million on operating expense incurred by Hastert.
While Sarah Palin was declining the extravagances of a personal chef and chauffeur at Alaskan taxpayer expense, Nancy Pelosi required a staff of 51, compared to her predecessor in the same job who employed only 35. Hastert billed $1,700 in travel expense his last year, while Pelosi spent $60,000, which did not include any “congressional delegation” trips to Europe and the Middle East.
When Governor Palin was negotiating with the big three oil companies on revenues and the windfall tax increase she succeeded in finalizing, Todd Palin resigned from his job with BP to avoid any conflict of interest. Governor Palin’s resolve will result this year in a $1,200 per taxpayer rebate, issued on the back of this legislation.
Ms. Pelosi, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to notice her own conflicts of interest, much less think them a problem. During her first months in office, while she was hammering for that raise in the minimum wage, she was fighting fiercely for an exemption for American Samoa, which happened to be the home of Star-Kist (the No. 1 employer), whose parent company Dole was headquartered in her home district and was a major contributor to her campaigns. She now shills shamelessly for huge monetary incentives for wind farms, while owning substantial stock interest in same.
One of the more interesting aspects of this election will be which form of “house-cleaning” is preferred by the people, who pay the bills, and which of these two women will emerge as the most powerful woman in American government.
Frugality vs. extravagance. Wal-Mart vs. Armani. Benjamin Franklin vs. King George.
You pick.
(standing ovation…)
Bravo, Ms. Shiver…bravo!
“…wasting other people’s money was far worse on the sin scale than wasting one’s own.” THAT says it better than even the Wal-Mart/Armani imagery.
Palin and piglosi.
At least Murtha, unlike Traitor McCain, doesn’t want a tanker contract to be handed over to the French-owned EADS. Why did some desperate guy procreate with this woman (i.e. Shiver)?
Zbig–get a clue, I know it’s difficult for you folks to maintain any semblance of intelligence in your insights, but like an adolescent it always come back to snide, pithy, and glib insults.
Ms. Shriver well done.
As a Californian, let me apologize for the politics of the people we send to Congress. When somebody coined the phrase describing California as “The land of fruits and nuts,” they were correct. Our Legislature is a laughing stock, and those we send to Washington are the products of a very dysfunctional environment. Pelosi is but one example — Boxer is another.
As an east-coast liberal, I am completely diametrically opposed to many of Gov Palin’s personal positions. That being said, as an open minded person, I’ve gotta say that I’m finding Palin’s record of executive accomplishments in Alaska pretty impressive. Looking at the economic problems confronting the US government right now, Palin is someone I’d like to see in an influential position. I was disgusted with Pelosi’s and Obama’s finger pointing at the Republicans for the economic crisis, when to be perfectly honest President Clinton signed a bill into law that removed post-depression restrictions on banks, brokerage houses, and insurance companies being one and the same entity, Obama was one of the biggest recipients of campaign money from Frannie/Freddie and Lehman brothers, and McCain actually sponsored a bill for greater regulation of Frannie/Freddie in 2005. Their reaction was not only dishonest, but also not in any way a helpful solution to the problem.
I am absolutely thrilled at the prospect of Sarah Palin wading into the absolutely disgraceful JOKE that our current House and Congress is! God knows we’ve been waiting for someone to stand up and be willing to bear the brunt of the media and fat, lazy Washington and get things done. Our government hasn’t worked for the people for longer than most of us can probably remember. I wish her all the luck in the world because she is going to need it but I have complete confidence that there isn’t a better person for the job.
She’s getting ready to hunting good ole boys and she’s bringing her big gun! You’d better grab as much as you can carry and head for the door before she gets you in her sights because nobody will be crying for you when she mounts your heads on her wall! We’ll be cheering her on and leading her to the rest of your dens of disgrace.
Guess what Kelly,
Palin is not running against Pelosi!
Executive is not Legislative!
But I guess this is just exercise in anti-intellectual knee jerk blogging to fire up the blogtards
Umm.. Jav….The Vice POTUS sits at the head of the Senate. Duh.
Zbigniew Mazurak: Way to stay on point. Did you read this article? “Traiter McCain”? How about if you go stay at the Hanoi hilton for five years getting all of your bones broken over and over again, then come back here and call him a traitor. You’re an a$$.
Javelin: Quite the intellect there. And you’re apparently in the group of blogtards with the rest of us posting here.
Zbig: If you want your comments taken seriously, it might enhance your cause if your grammar and spelling were even close to being literate. Orderly thought processes would help too.
Everyone is dancing around the actual content of this article. It is really simple: Nancy Pelosi made a lot of promises she didn’t even begin to keep (which is why the Congress has a 9% approval rating – heaven knows what it will be now that they’re running away and hiding from the banking crisis) while Sarah Palin made anti-corruption promises and, in a very UNpoliticianlike manner, she kept them.
When Republicans transgress, we insist they resign from Congress. But when Dems do (Kennedy, Murtha, Rangel, Jefferson etc.) they don’t even lose their chairmanships! The Democratic Party didn’t used to be this way. But over the past 40 years it has become the party of moral degenerates and baby killers. I am sure that Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy are doing wheelies in their graves from disgust!
It has become so sad – and so bad for our country.
I have preached over and over and over again that our nation needs two vibrant and energetic political parties in order to be at its best. The tarnish is so thick on the Dems as to make them unrecognizable and the Republicans are only now realizing that they have backbones. Our Republic could be in danger of being lost – but everyone is so headlong on their own favorite hate filled rant, riding whatever insane hobby horse suits them, wholly focused on self, self, self – that this beautiful nation which has been the hope of the entire world is on the verge of implosion.
So you George Soros clones just keep it right up. When the whirlwind comes – and it easily could – you’ll be destroyed too! That’s the thing about whirlwinds – they destroy anything in their paths without discrimination.
The side by side comparison between Palin and Pelosi could be as devastating as the side by side comparison made between Palin and Obama.
Hey Jav-y Baby 9:09am,
Turn down the dial on your tanning bed…it’s getting to yer head!
Obama isn’t running against Palin, either…so you’d be best off informing HIM!
What people don’t understand is why some of us are so against the current Republican ticket, but we have an obligation to fight against history ever being repeated again. Many of us out here are not fighting for the Democratic campaign but are fighting against an ideology.
1) An ideology that completely mirrors the ideology of this past 8 years.
2) An ideology that recognizes the few while completely disregarding the masses.
3) An ideology that believes in taking military action against Iraq, an incident that is completely unrelated to 9/11, without solidifying our claims beforehand. In the present, we have found no evidence of weapons of mass destructions or a tie to Osama Bin Laden. The devastation of this war has cost us over 4,000 of our brave troops and counting, over 1/2 trillion dollars of taxpayer’s money and counting, and over 1 million Iraqi lives unrelated to the terrorists or insurgency.
Cost of the Iraq War — http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home
4) An ideology that still believes that the Iraq War is the right war on terrorism when the Afghanistan War should had been the right war on terrorism, where Osama Bin Laden actually was until he slipped into the mountains and into Pakistan’s territory now. The Iraq War also diverted our attention away from the Afghanistan War. We now have extended our resources in two separate places and have heightened our risk to our troops, our expenses, and creating another dilemma that will take quite some time to finalize. The Iraq War will not go away overnight and it is now our obligation to see it all the way through for God knows how many more years. This has also been the most unpopular war in the eyes of the world’s communities.
5) An ideology that believes that we are at our safest state since 9/11, when a recent terrorist plot was still trying to enter Great Britain’s airports with liquid explosives heading directly to us, but thankfully the plot was foiled. While in Afghanistan, the terrorists are regrouping and strengthening and we have recently suffered another high casualty to our troops yet again within this past month. We currently have the least amount of alliances in the world’s communities due to this unpopular Iraq War. True national securities are the ties that bind us to our world’s communities and the ties that bind them to us.
6) An ideology that vetted one of the most inexperience VP ticket in history, from foreign policies to national defense. If God forbids that anything happens to this President if elected and is stricken with illness, this VP will be running the country.
7) An ideology that believes in “the fundamentals of our economy are strong” while we are facing the highest mortgage foreclosure crisis, high unemployment rate, and the largest collapse of our financial infrastructures since The Great Depression of 1929.
This is an ideology that a lot of us in America are against. Whether this ideology is in the Republican or Democratic ticket is not the main issue but the fact is that America does not want to fall into another 4 more years of devastation. We cannot afford this anymore.
…another 4 more years of devastation – Jeff
I don’t believe that you have a clue about what devastation really is.
You got hyperbole down pretty well, though.
Gayle Miller – my grammar and spelling are perfect. I did not make any mistakes in my previous comment. That’s a fact.
Besides, I am not a clone of GS, nor do I favour the election of Obama. But I did call McCain a traitor – because he is one.
Someone said that McCain was tortured and therefore I should SU. But he wasn’t tortured. His claim that he was is merely a lie made up by McCain himself, who will say anything about himself for political benefits. Even if he’d be tortured, it does not imply that I don’t have the right to call him a traitor.
“Jeff” 12:54pm –
THE FOURTH TIME YOU’VE COPIED THIS TRIPE INTO A THREAD…wow, you’re quite the wRiTeR…heh.
I’ll guess you mean : “Capitalism” …
…versus Socialism (not that you or Zerobama would ever admit to that being the driver behind his policies…no, no, we don’t mean Soros’ checkbook here…)
Given that choice, I trust Americans to vote for Capitalism – warts and all – every time over Socialism.
Elizabeth:
“As an east-coast liberal, I am completely diametrically opposed to many of Gov Palin’s personal positions.”
As an Alaskan conservative I am glad you are taking a good look at governor Palin. She has done all the things you are interested in. On the other hand she has enacted none of her personal positions you are probably diametrically opposed to. This may come as a surprise to you but we are pretty much live and let live her in Alaska.Palin’s record is it makes no difference who in what party is corrupt…they are going down.
Mr. M. 1:42pm –
Since you say you are concerned about “traitors” to the United States,
WHAT DO YOU SAY ABOUT – THAT IS TO SAY, WHY DO YOU NOT VOCIFEROUSLY DENOUNCE – OBAMA AND HIS CONDUCT IN IRAQ?
This is…err…WAS…”Mister I-want-us-out-of-Iraq-immediately-in-2007″…who, in MID-2008 suggested to the Iraqi government that they delay agreements/negotiations/decisions with the current U.S. government until after the election…effectively forcing U.S. troops to remain in harm’s way LONGER THAN NECESSARY for the SOLE PURPOSE of PROMOTING OBAMA’S PERSONAL AGENDA.
DO tell.
Just imagine, the handpicked Obama as Pres with Reid and Pelosi in their respective positions. What a circus that would be. No one in their right mind would want that future for the US. As for Palin and Pelosi, I can’t imagine Palin putting on a headscarf to impress Assad. No way!
Jeff: I appreciate that your that is not full of nonsensical rants and can believe that you are being sincere.
But in reference to one of your statements, “An ideology that vetted one of the most inexperience VP ticket in history, from foreign policies to national defense.”, what does this say about a Democratic Party willing to put the least experience person in Presidential history at the top of their ticket?
Our country IS at stake. The socialist agenda that Senator Obama is promoting will destroy freedom.
I’ve been reading a lot of the conservative and liberal blogs today, and it’s telling that the liberal blogs have a lot of (but not all) insightful, issues oriented problems with the Repub. candidates, the flip flops, the inaccuracies and outright lies (you sold the jet to a republican campaign contributor for a loss Sarah – be sure to tell Mccain so he stops lying and saying that you sold it on Ebay for a profit. Lie, you rail against pork barrel politics, while hiring a lobbyist to get you millions in funds for your tiny town, you claim that government is the cause of the current economic mess on wall street — but the government has been lead by BUSH for 8 years, and by Republicans in congress for 6 of the last 8 years). The Republication / family values party / Christian evangelical party is filled with hatred and intolerance. What would Jesus say about your attitude? God willing, Obama will win this race and we won’t be subjected to 4-8 more years of Republican pandering to the Christian right, so they can pursue their greedy, profit at any cost domination of our country. WWJD? Jesus would be against abortion, agreed. He would also be against letting business destroy our God-given environment so that businesses can turn a profit. We’ve had 8 years of BUSH, and McCain/Palin are just 4 more years of the same.
mary,
Socialism, government control, and corruption are not the answer – unless European economic growth and unemployment numbers.
Again, Ayers, Dohrn, Annenberg Challenge, Rev Wright, Tony Rezko, Johnson (Fannie Mae)… Sarah Palin is quite besides the point looking at what Obama represents – change for the worst. Nonetheless, her resume remains far stronger than Obama’s. She even likes the USA! Imagine that.
nice comments, but you are way off base.
Zbig: Please go soak your head in the Oder and quit hounding KA at every stroke of her pen. We really don’t care what you think or what you have to say from the other side. This is the USA and, if you don’t like our politics or what we have to say about our state of political affairs, then stay away or… as they say around here: “git”…. even our hound dogs understand this.
EADS is in partnership with Northrop-Grumman for the tanker contract. Boeing has been caught jerking around the DoD several times. Of course, anyone who believes McCain made up being tortured at the hands of the VC and NVA is so much of an idiot there’s no point in arguing.
2. 1 million Iraqis is a phantom figure based on a deeply flawed Lancet study. The current count is nearing 100,000 at Iraq bodycount – but that’s also somewhat inflated, though the methodology is better than at Lancet, as they use media stories (which aren’t bulletproof). And the grand majority are the results of insurgents or “actors for unkown reasons.” We are responsible for VERY few civilian deaths…although one civilian death is tragic enough.
So some IDIOT named
Zbigniew Mazurak
calls McCain a traitor.
Well, you stupid punk jerk, you are a puss eating, scum sucking, low life
retard.
And I will bet you do not have the guts to call McCain a tratior to his face.
Neil C. Reinhardt
Bravo Encore Bravo Encore: a very funny and at the same time a very serious piece, Classic Kyle-Anne.
I would love to see what a cartoonist could do with the “moose-burger vs organic tofu” line.
Ziggy: you just had to show up and show your trailor trash level of stupidity. Your mentioning or Murtha and Senator McCain in the same breath insults every american wearing the uniform of one of our military services.
Please go find a freeway to play on and leave the adults alone.
PC is Thought Control
LEE
Jeff, your comments show you do NOT HAVE A CLUE about Iraq.
This Agnostic Atheist Activest
(so you will know I am not a Republican)
states, the FACTS PROVE Iraq War is FULLY Justifed and any one who does not know it is TOO STUPID to understandthe facts.
Neil C. Reinhardt
Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, who has been to Iraq six times, commented on Palin’s readiness to assume the VP spot in an interview with the Omaha World Herald:
“I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense about, ‘I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia.’ That kind of thing is insulting to the American people. … She doesn’t have any foreign policy credentials. You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don’t know what you can say. You can’t say anything.”
That about sums it up, and to hear it from a Republican Senator, a distinguished Vietnam vet. We knew McCain’s pick of Palin was all about politics and not about qualifications. Even Karl Rove has said she is not the most qualified candidate.
Dan Quayle is looking good right now.
And sorry, Republicans have lost most of their attack lines. The series of virtues Palin was supposed to bring to the ticket: She’s a reformer, a steadfast opponent of earmarks, a proponent of transparency and clean government. Subsequent reporting has revealed that Palin embodies the precise opposite of every one of these virtues. She appointed unqualified cronies, abused her power to punish personal enemies, and has displayed a Cheney-esque passion for government secrecy.
Game over. As the NYT said, ““the Palin effect” was, at least so far, a limited burst of interest.”
Lee – I am an adult. You’re not. You’re a little kid in love with Shiver. Murtha served the US for 37 years. Have you ever served with the military? I’d bet that you haven’t.
Scooter – I will continue to hound that **** Shiver until I decide that I don’t want to do so anymore. Idiots like you, Lee or Neil will not dictate to me what I can say.
Neil – Actually, I would not only call McCain a traitor to his face, but also laugh to his face about his pathethic campaign. The GOP believes that nominating a traiterous leftist RINO will win them an election. It won’t.
(for whatever reason, this was censored/not posted last evening…)
FROM:
http://astuteblogger.blogspot.com/2008/09/nytimes-in-2003-bush-proposed.html
EXCERPT:
“… Among the groups denouncing the proposal today were the National Association of Home Builders and Congressional Democrats who fear that tighter regulation of the companies could sharply reduce their commitment to financing low-income and affordable housing.
”These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ”The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”
Representative Melvin L. Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, agreed.
”I don’t see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing,” Mr. Watt said.”
William,
Please go back and tell David Axelrod that he need to send in some replacement ASTROTURF WRITERS, as the few still here have been reduced to spewing vitriol and nonsense such as yours.
This is a interesting thread. I’ve seen numerous comparisons to how Sarah Palin has conducted herself in office compared to Obama. I’ve not seen so many comparing her with the Pelosi record. The moon bats seem to object to this on the grounds that there can be no comparison. Has anyone taken the time to compare Sarah’s record as Mayor & Governor with, oh I don’t know, say Eliot Spitzer? It would be nice to contrast how the former AG and Gov of New York state lived up to his stated principles. The lionization by the liberal media when he was abusing the power of the AG’s office, their coverage during his recent unpleasantness and the double standard applied to the scrutiny of Sarah Palins record. Might be worth a column or two eh?
Harry Reid’s worst nightmare a 50-50 tie in the Senate and Sarah Barracuda to break any ties. Pelosi and Reed are the two biggest doofusses ever, get out Pelosi and let Hillary run the show never thought I would say that being a conservative . Reed deserves to be buried in the Nevada desert and eaten by the vultures. Barack go back to being one of Richie Daley’s errand boys. Work on getting the Olympics to Chicago, you are in over your head running for POTUS.
Thank you for the comparison between the two.
You expressed my thinking eloquently.
In many respects I feel that Sarah Palin is the
only hope we have for getting our government
back on track. I just looked online for the
committee members of the banking committee headed by Chris Dodd. We need to get a petition
together to oust the lot, republicans and democrats alike. True reform will unfortunately be brutal, however it is necessary.
My friends,remember what you are voting for. Is it for the country,or is it because of a dislike of a certain candidate?Think about what’s good for America,like good and hard.
Comparing Nancy Pelosi and Sarah Palin seems like comparing apples and oranges.
Sarah is the real deal, smart and able to think on her feet. Nancy is not very bright, is insecure & petty and hides behind pat phrases and blaming “the Bush administration” for damn near everything from “the oil crisis” to bad toenails.
Finally, several weeks ago, something occurred that Nancy couldn’t blame on “Bush” when she put her foot in her mouth over Saint Augustine and abortion. Catholic bishops and cardinals from coast to coast rained down on Pelosi’s “interpretation”.
Nancy couldn’t do much about that, but she would dearly like to quell any political criticism of her by reinstituting the (anti) Fairness Doctrine.
Well, Kyle-Anne, I must say you outdid yourself again. This comparison of Sarah and Nancy is just spot-on. I noticed in all the comments from the leftists here that no one actually tried to compare Nancy’s good points against Sarah’s shortcomings. Maybe because they can’t find any good points about Nancy? Every negative comment to you, beside the Polish Putz’, were bashing Palin. I can’t recall anyone trying to defend Peloskyvitch. Job well done, La Belle des Sud.
2 airbags