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Pelosi plans to stay as Speaker

     Nancy Pelosi, 82, intends to run for reelection, and will keep her position as House Speaker “at least” through the midterm elections and perhaps beyond, CNN reported on Sunday, December 12, 2021 (read story here).

     Pelosi has been effective at unifying her squabbling caucus and passing key legislation. She’s also level-headed and exerts a calming influence in this era of fraught politics. When some Democrats began talking about impeaching President Trump, she closed the door on them. But when Trump committed clear impeachable offenses, she acted decisively on both occasions.
     Trump intercepted military aid to Ukraine approved by Congress and held it ransom for the Ukraine government’s cooperation with a scheme to smear Joe Biden, in order to serve Trump’s domestic political purposes. This was a presidential attack on congressional authority, and a betrayal of a foreign friend and ally that jeopardized America’s and Europe’s security interests in eastern Europe.
     He deserved to be impeached for that, and the impeachment — even though shamefully thwarted by sycophant Republican senators — served the important purpose of drawing a line against presidential misconduct and exerting a check on abuse of presidential power.
     When Trump incited a mob to attack Congress, Pelosi quickly marshaled House Democrats to impeach him for he left office. This time, some Republican senators broke with their caucus to vote against his reckless and dangerous behavior, but not enough to find him guilty.
     Both impeachments flowed from attacks against Congress. It’s only natural for that institution to use its constitutional power to impeach to protect itself when attacked by an out-of-control executive branch leader. It’s hard to imagine how anyone could question that.
     In both cases, Pelosi exercised maximum restraint, strictly limiting the articles of impeachment to narrow issues, keeping her members and the public focused on those issues, and shoving aside many House Democrats’ broader and more sweeping complaints against Trump and his presidency.
     In doing so, Pelosi showed herself to be a superb leader. America could do a lot worse. Imagine Kevin McCarthy wielding the Speaker’s gavel, and Jim Jordan chairing an important House committee. If you need a barf bag, I have one available.

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