Patterico's Pontifications

2/15/2013

Beneath The Dignity Of Congress

Filed under: General — JD @ 7:54 am

[guest post by JD]

Nancy Pelosi tells us the draconian sequester cuts and gasp Congressional pay cut is beneath the dignity of Congress.

The idea that anything is beneath their dignity is laughable.

Were we to have a MFM that does it’s job, SanFranNan and Slow Joe would have a daily gaffe segment on every news broadcast.

—JD

66 Comments

  1. Sexist

    Comment by JD (b63a52) — 2/15/2013 @ 7:55 am

  2. “A sequester should be out of the question,” she said.

    pelosi and meghan’s coward daddy are on the same page

    Comment by happyfeet (323d6f) — 2/15/2013 @ 7:58 am

  3. Politicians open their mouths and something idiotic, or lies fall out.

    Comment by Kevin P. (1df29c) — 2/15/2013 @ 8:03 am

  4. Let’s play guess the party once again:

    Story of a politician who embezzles millions from a charity to fund a gambling habit…. Ah! There it is down in Paragraph 13, well below the drop, after of course some paragraphs qualifying what a sympathetic person she is, and this quote: “[She] was a selfless public official who contributed much to the well-being of San Diego. However, no figure, regardless of how much good they’ve done or how much they’ve given to charity, can escape criminal liability with impunity.”

    http://news.yahoo.com/ex-mayors-1-billion-gambling-woes-stun-san-095015218.html

    Comment by Joseph D (ece5cb) — 2/15/2013 @ 8:15 am

  5. JosephD–there’s another thread here about that.

    Comment by elissa (cbd33a) — 2/15/2013 @ 8:19 am

  6. Greetings:

    Wasn’t it Nancy Pelosi, the First Female ex-Speaker of the House of Representatives of the US Congress, who first said, “You can take my Congressional seat when you pry it from my cold, dead ass.” ???

    Comment by 11B40 (9210e3) — 2/15/2013 @ 8:20 am

  7. pay cut is beneath the dignity of Congress.

    The essence, the epitome, the height, the core, the heart, the inspiration, and the chutzpah of the “limousine liberal.”

    How can we peons get in on the action?!

    Comment by Mark (b40cf0) — 2/15/2013 @ 9:04 am

  8. ‘Dignity’. There it is, just an empty, superficial word.

    I’ll grant wildcat zeppos their dignity, they work, providing a service, to pay the bills. Congress, not so much.

    Comment by gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 2/15/2013 @ 9:09 am

  9. That low? Are they drilling under the asthenosphere?

    Comment by htom (412a17) — 2/15/2013 @ 9:51 am

  10. With people like Alan Grayson, Maxine Waters, Pete Stark, and Sheila Jackson Lee in her caucus, Pelosi demonstrates some amazing skilz to use the words congressional dignity without breaking out into uncontrollable giggling.

    Comment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/15/2013 @ 9:57 am

  11. In the past, I have had congressmen of the likes of John G Schmitz and “Bomber” Bob Dornan. Now it is Maxine Waters. How I miss those sober solemn fellows of old.

    Comment by Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 2/15/2013 @ 10:26 am

  12. This “beneath the dignity” comment comes for the San Francisco rep? Has she been home lately? There are a lot of good things to say about SF, but “dignified” is not first on the list.

    Comment by Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 2/15/2013 @ 10:30 am

  13. “How DARE you try and hold US accountable, peasants!”

    Comment by mojo (8096f2) — 2/15/2013 @ 10:39 am

  14. ==With people like Alan Grayson, Maxine Waters, Pete Stark, and Sheila Jackson Lee in her caucus, Pelosi demonstrates some amazing skilz to use the words congressional dignity without breaking out into uncontrollable giggling.

    Comment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/15/2013==

    What’s up with giving Debbie Wasserman Schultz a pass, daley? Ya goin’ soft here?

    Comment by elissa (cbd33a) — 2/15/2013 @ 10:48 am

  15. The whole way Congress has been handling the budget is beneath the dignity of Congress. It’s a totally broken budget process.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/15/us/politics/senate-democrats-make-their-move-on-budget-
    deal.html?_r=0

    The legislation is more a bargaining position than a solution. Republicans have said they will not accept any new taxes in a deal to head off the so-called sequester — across-the-board cuts to defense and domestic programs of 5 percent to 8 percent and totaling about $1 trillion over 10 years. But Senate Democratic leaders said Thursday that their party must rally support around an alternative to try to move negotiations forward.

    “This bill is an important chess piece,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Democrat in the Senate…..

    Comment by Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 2/15/2013 @ 10:54 am

  16. No amount of money can restore Nancy Pelosi’s dignity.

    Comment by Elephant Stone (eeb298) — 2/15/2013 @ 10:54 am

  17. Sammy – The Senate is so serious about this process they have not even bothered to reduce any proposal to legislative language. That’s dignified!

    Comment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/15/2013 @ 10:58 am

  18. “What’s up with giving Debbie Wasserman Schultz a pass, daley? Ya goin’ soft here?”

    elissa – No, torn between a much longer list or just a few to make the point. I left my own Congressloon off as well.

    Comment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/15/2013 @ 11:01 am

  19. More:

    As the cuts approach, warnings of disaster are growing increasingly dire.

    The Senate Appropriations Committee released a barrage of letters from agencies spelling out how the cuts would be meted out: 600,000 low-income women and children dropped from federal nutrition programs; meat and poultry plants forced to close because of furloughed federal inspectors; deep cuts to the poor school systems that rely most heavily on federal assistance; delayed permits for oil and gas production; and shorter seasons, reduced operating hours and possible park closings in the national park system. Job losses could reach 750,000 this year, said Representative Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland.

    While Republicans and Democrats agree the cuts would be destructive, neither side seems ready to negotiate a solution.

    Obviously, some of these cuts are completely idiotic, not to mention not sending a second aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf right now.

    Comment by Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 2/15/2013 @ 11:04 am

  20. In the meantime Ezekiel Emanuel (brother of Rahm) has an Op-ed article in the New York times that lists some ways money can be saved (on health care)

    http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/health-cares-good-news/

    It’s competitive bidding on some standard things in health care: wheelchairs, hospital beds, diabetic testing equipment, like glucose strip, oxygen equipment, blood tests, X-Rays, CT scans, pacemakers etc:

    (By the way, I think he’s allowed to have a few good proposals)

    So what more can be done? Here is another piece of good news: there are many common sense reforms that should appeal to both Democrats and Republicans.

    One example is competitive bidding. Historically, the government has effectively set prices through Medicare for wheelchairs, hospital beds and other medical equipment. But a demonstration project begun in 2011 introduced competitive bidding in roughly 100 metropolitan areas to see if market forces could bring down prices. The results have been dramatic. Prices for oxygen equipment went down 41 percent; wheelchairs, 36 percent; hospital beds, 44 percent; and the cost of diabetic testing equipment, like glucose strips, dropped by a whopping 72 percent. And research has shown no adverse effects on beneficiaries.

    The Affordable Care Act will expand competitive bidding for these items to the rest of the country in 2016. But why wait? We should roll it out nationwide next year. And it shouldn’t just be for medical equipment. In his last budget, President George W. Bush recommended expanding competitive bidding for blood tests and other lab procedures. It could also work for X-rays, CT scans, pacemakers — for all medical commodities. This would drive health care spending growth closer to the increase in G.D.P.

    But I am pretty sure the Congressional budget office would not score that as a budget saving, because it is after all, speculative, so it is not on the table.

    Here again we come to my budget solution: tie everything to a source. People who think something will save money can tie an appropriation to it.

    Comment by Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 2/15/2013 @ 11:05 am

  21. elissa – I want the Democrats to run Blowfish Face for Senate in Kentucky next year. That would be big time fun.

    Comment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/15/2013 @ 11:06 am

  22. SMOD passed thru moments ago.

    We are still stuck with ibn Dunham waiting on the Mahdi.

    Comment by gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 2/15/2013 @ 11:26 am

  23. daley– She fits right in with the politics, values, employment history, and independent self-image of most Kentuckians- NOT. The down ticket Dems running for re-election there will love having her drag down their races while sucking all the available media air out of the room.

    (Apparently Dario Franchitti did not wish to be the spouse of a politician either.)

    Comment by elissa (cbd33a) — 2/15/2013 @ 11:31 am

  24. EU very disappointed SMOD off target:

    “A recent study by Ernst & Young has revealed that euro-land banks in the aggregate now hold € 918 billion ($1.23 trn.) in non-performing loans (7.6% of all loans outstanding).”

    Of course in Spain its a little higher, like 12%.

    Comment by gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 2/15/2013 @ 11:31 am

  25. is 1.23 trn a lot?

    I can’t tell anymore

    Comment by happyfeet (4bf7c2) — 2/15/2013 @ 11:34 am

  26. “daley– She fits right in with the politics, values, employment history, and independent self-image of most Kentuckians- NOT.”

    elissa – Plus, she made a big, huge, ginormous, galactic deal of calling Tennessee home a few years back, so she’s got that going for her, which is nice.

    Comment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/15/2013 @ 11:35 am

  27. Comment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/15/2013 @ 9:57 am

    daley, “Pete” got bitten courtesy of CA’s Top-Two system, in 2012, and lost the General Election to another Dem.

    Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

    Comment by askeptic (b8ab92) — 2/15/2013 @ 11:38 am

  28. As long as we’re off topic, while there is asteroid that is going to miss teh earth by 17,000 miles, another smaller one, just hit Russia.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/16/world/europe/meteorite-fragments-are-said-to-rain-down-on-siberia.html?hp&_r=0&pagewanted=all

    No news as to how big this is compared to the one that hit in 1908.

    Comment by Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 2/15/2013 @ 11:38 am

  29. People really should learn to be much more careful of what they blurt out if they ever want to run for office or be appointed to a cabinet position later, I think.

    Comment by elissa (cbd33a) — 2/15/2013 @ 11:41 am

  30. 25. Well, we’re talking straws on camels back. Spain, for example, has no money, living hand to mouth.

    Youth unemployment 60%, 25% of mortgages underwater, owes 300 Billion euros it has to rollover yearly with really only its brokeback banks buying.

    An utterly orthodox end:

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-15/guest-post-global-endgame-fourteen-points

    , does not include nasty accidents like Spain suddenly doesn’t make payroll, spooking its domestic markets and, in turn, its auctions of debt fail.

    Comment by gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 2/15/2013 @ 11:43 am

  31. SF, was that an asteroid, or a NoKor missile test gone awry?

    Comment by askeptic (b8ab92) — 2/15/2013 @ 11:45 am

  32. 28. It already missed and is departing. Ostensibly 150 feet wide it would have been 2.5 Megatons of TNT wiping out 750 mile diameter.

    Smaller than 1908 comet(?) that blew up overhead.

    Comment by gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 2/15/2013 @ 11:46 am

  33. Sammy: I shudder to think of the reaction had that meteorite hit Russia in 1983.

    Comment by aphrael (5d993c) — 2/15/2013 @ 11:47 am

  34. We’re not off topic, Sammy. We are competently discussing the all too obvious “dignity” of certain members current, past, and possibly future of the U.S. congress.

    Comment by elissa (cbd33a) — 2/15/2013 @ 11:51 am

  35. aphrael,

    If an asteroid has hit the Soviet Union in 1983, an old lefty like you would have probably blamed Reagan at the time.
    :)

    Comment by Elephant Stone (eeb298) — 2/15/2013 @ 11:56 am

  36. “had” not has

    Comment by Elephant Stone (eeb298) — 2/15/2013 @ 11:56 am

  37. Beneath the dignity of congress lies the trampled work force.

    Comment by mg (31009b) — 2/15/2013 @ 11:57 am

  38. Also beneath the dignity of governments at all levels, telling the truth:

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-15/january-industrial-production-decline-bodes-poorly-q1-gdp-rebound

    So the BLS, BEA, and MSM all spun the fairytale that ‘we are on the way back’ for Nov. 6th.

    The auto makers bought the BS, no one bought their cars and now the sinkhole got that much bigger.

    Comment by gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 2/15/2013 @ 12:22 pm

  39. 35. The mask is in a corner someplace but the maid is on a Carnival Cruise and prolly won’t remember what she did wif it on return.

    Comment by gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 2/15/2013 @ 12:26 pm

  40. Judging by the burn response of the fragment that hist Russia, it’s a stony asteroid. They tend to explode when they hit thick air, about 5-10 miles up.

    Comment by mojo (8096f2) — 2/15/2013 @ 12:28 pm

  41. “daley, “Pete” got bitten courtesy of CA’s Top-Two system, in 2012, and lost the General Election to another Dem.”

    askeptic – Thanks for the info. I can safely keep trying to ignore him I guess.

    Comment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/15/2013 @ 12:31 pm

  42. Sammy – Are scientists going to save Nancy Pelosi’s brain to study in the future?

    Comment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/15/2013 @ 12:33 pm

  43. As soon as they hire Stanley to find it.

    Comment by askeptic (b8ab92) — 2/15/2013 @ 12:48 pm

  44. How can you pay for teen age hookers with a pay decrease when Marco Rubio is spending all that money on water in evil plastic bottles?

    Comment by Mike (7b4374) — 2/15/2013 @ 12:55 pm

  45. 44. How can you pay for teen age hookers with a pay decrease when Marco Rubio is spending all that money on water in evil plastic bottles?

    Comment by Mike (7b4374) — 2/15/2013 @ 12:55 pm

    Well, like with Medicare you just cap their pay.

    Comment by Steve57 (60a887) — 2/15/2013 @ 1:00 pm

  46. There oughta be a law.

    …grumbles the old Democrat outraged by the price of hookers these days. “Why, when I was a kid in Hyanniss Port…”

    Comment by Steve57 (60a887) — 2/15/2013 @ 1:03 pm

  47. *Hyannis port*

    Apparently there’s only one way to spell it, which I’m sure will shock the hell out of the Indians who lived there before the Kennedy’s.

    Comment by Steve57 (60a887) — 2/15/2013 @ 1:12 pm

  48. The one thing I can’t get in Tejas that I’d really like to have is a quahog.

    Comment by Steve57 (60a887) — 2/15/2013 @ 1:15 pm

  49. or ten.

    Comment by Steve57 (60a887) — 2/15/2013 @ 1:15 pm

  50. “Apparently there’s only one way to spell it”

    Steve57 – Some folks still make it just one word.

    Comment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/15/2013 @ 1:53 pm

  51. I don’t think that word “dignity” means what she thinks it means.

    Comment by MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 2/15/2013 @ 3:13 pm

  52. I think the point that they are both legacies, one the daughter of a Baltimore mayor and congressmen,
    the other a member of the Lannister clan, makes them particularly arrogant.

    Comment by narciso (3fec35) — 2/15/2013 @ 3:35 pm

  53. Stuffed Quahogs, yum. And a dozen Dennis Oysters.

    Comment by mg (31009b) — 2/15/2013 @ 3:39 pm

  54. It is hard to imagine anything that is beneath the dignity of the Political Class.
    Thomas Sowell remarked that believing Menendez, or an under-age Dominican hooker, was a close call.
    He was being too kind to the Senator – it’s not that close. I’m sure the hooker has standards.

    Comment by askeptic (b8ab92) — 2/15/2013 @ 4:05 pm

  55. Thomas Sowell remarked that believing Menendez, or an under-age Dominican hooker, was a close call.

    I’m sure Thomas Sowell has been getting a Brazilian phone calls in favor of the Dominican.

    Comment by Steve57 (60a887) — 2/15/2013 @ 4:21 pm

  56. Congress and the President have too much dignity to do the Harlem Shakes. Sort of.

    Comment by DRJ (a83b8b) — 2/15/2013 @ 7:53 pm

  57. “A sequester should be out of the question,” she said.

    Translation: “STFU,” she said.

    Comment by navyvet (02dd07) — 2/15/2013 @ 8:16 pm

  58. One would have to journey to the center of the earth in order to reach a point beneath Pelosi’s dignity.

    Comment by Icy (084d41) — 2/15/2013 @ 11:27 pm

  59. Even then, it’s a photo finish.

    Comment by askeptic (2bb434) — 2/15/2013 @ 11:33 pm

  60. send pelosi to newark I say

    strip her and whip her, boys

    she’s run up quite a debt

    Comment by happyfeet (acd614) — 2/16/2013 @ 9:43 am

  61. Mr. Feets – When your dignity gets trampled it’s red velvet cupcake time is what I say!

    Comment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/16/2013 @ 10:18 am

  62. let them eat cupcake!

    Comment by happyfeet (acd614) — 2/16/2013 @ 10:19 am

  63. apres moi, le Snoball!

    Comment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/16/2013 @ 10:22 am

  64. “Let them eat cake! L’etat c’est moi!”

    Comment by Nancy Pelosi (05cbb8) — 2/16/2013 @ 1:46 pm

  65. Scum does indeed rise to the top of a toxic cesspool:

    http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2013/02/chicago-mayor-and-police-chief-attack.html

    Comment by gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 2/17/2013 @ 4:22 am

  66. Jonah Goldberg says Marie Antonette didn’t say that (which we know) buit also that taht comment made perfect sense: there was a law in france that said bakers had to see bread at a certain fiixed price, and if there was no bread, then normally more expensive things (otherwise there could be a loophole in which they wouldn’t bake the cheapest bread)

    So let them eat cake was indeed the practice.

    Comment by Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 2/19/2013 @ 1:57 pm

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