Shortly after her selection in January as the first female Speaker of the House, Pelosi was quoted as saying "I accept this gavel in the spirit of partnership not partisanship, and look forward to working ... with you on behalf of the American people."
Now, a short three months later she's the engine behind a costly maneuver by the Democrats in Congress to capture the political spotlight and win free publicity, voting narrowly to send President Bush a bill with provisions he would certainly veto.
Could it be she's confused with the definition of partnership? Does she know the definition of partisanship? Or did she just misspeak and transpose the two words during her acceptance speech?
A basic English skills test is not currently required for Congressional membership -- maybe it's time we changed that ...
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Pelosi today responded to President Bush's veto of a budget authorization that would've set a timetable for American troop withdrawal from Iraq. President Bush promised to veto any Bills that set a timetable for troop withdrawal.
Pelosi said "We had hoped that the president would have treated it with the respect that bipartisan legislation supported overwhelmingly by the American people deserved."
'Overwhelming Support' usually means a two-thirds majority when talking in political terms, but Pelosi apparently has trouble with math: the legislation was passed with a 51 to 46 vote in the Senate and a 218 to 208 vote in the House --hardly 'overwhelming support'.
51 votes for out of 100 is just about 50%, no matter how you slice it. 218 votes for out of 435 is just about as close as you can get to 50% with a number like 435.
Could it be Pelosi's math skills aren't quite up to the job of assessing voting results? There is, after all, no IQ test for Congressional membership ... maybe there should be.
-CE
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