Tennessee congressional nominee Bret Carter wants Nancy Pelosi to step aside as House Speaker because, he says, “She has become a lightning rod who is keeping us from getting our message out.”
In other words, the San Francisco Democrat has been a toxic distraction that could make it impossible for Democrats to get reelected in November, let alone pick up any new seats.
Carter described Pelosi as a “baseball bat” that Republicans are using to beat over heads of Democrat candidates.
It’s no wonder. Since Pelosi took control of the House, the national debt has risen by over $4.49 trillion. Unemployment has risen from 4.6 percent to 9.6 percent.
Pelosi’s House foisted the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program bailouts on the American people, the $814 billion “stimulus,” the $2.5 trillion ObamaCare, the sweeping takeover of the financial sector in the Dodd-Frank bill, and even passed the destructive Waxman-Markey cap and tax on carbon emissions. Unemployment benefits have been extended to 99 weeks repeatedly.
Bankrupt states like New York and California have received federal bailouts to balance their budgets. In short, on Pelosi’s watch over the people’s House, the economy has collapsed, millions of jobs have been lost, and all the while government spending has exploded. And, argues Carter, it is killing Democrats on the campaign trail.
He’s not the only one. Americans for Limited Government’s Speaker Education Project (http://speakereducationproject.com) has been keeping track of who candidates for the House support for House Speaker in 2011. And so far, nobody really wants to say they support Pelosi.
Blue Dog Democrat Congressman Bobby Bright joked openly about Pelosi dying to avoid answering a question about whether he would vote for her as Speaker. Kathy Dahlkemper too declined to comment publicly if she would support Pelosi. John Spratt and Dina Titus both dodged the question, too.
Not so much as a single lukewarm endorsement.
As Pelosi becomes more politically toxic, and more Democrats jump ship, her hold on power will weaken. Already 31 House Democrats have asked that all of the Bush tax cuts be extended. If all 177 House Republicans voted to extend those tax cuts, they would only be 9 votes short right now.
An up or down vote on extending all of the tax cuts would be politically very tough to deny in the current economic climate. Unemployed Americans want jobs, and those employed want to keep their jobs, and everyone knows that raising taxes on job creators now will just mean that more jobs will be lost.
Nancy Pelosi could very likely lose control of the House on the eve of the November elections if she loses that vote. Could her Speaker’s chair really be far behind?
When candidates on the campaign trail are forced to denounce one of their own party leaders, it signals the end of Pelosi’s power over future Democrat caucuses, regardless of the political outcome in November.
Robert Romano is the Senior Editor of Americans for Limited Government (ALG) News Bureau.
