Due to circumstances beyond our control, Calitics has become one of the home bases for incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In addition to offering her staff the ability to post their own diaries, many of the front-page posters are constituents of Pelosi and we care very deeply whether she succeeds or fails.

During the last half a decade, the DC Press Corp has enabled some of the worst decisions ever made in the history of the United States. Which is why Pelosi would be wise to bypass them every chance she gets and talk directly to the people. It is technologically and physically possible, the only question is whether she will do it. I think the first recognition necessary to make this possible is that the smartest people don’t necessarily live in DC (by definition). Speaking of which, SoCal’s Digby says:

First of all, the idea that Nancy Pelosi has to reach across the aisle, work with George W. Bush and pass legislation that benefits the American people to prove that the Democrats are capable of governing is balderdash. The Republicans will pull every trick in the book to ensure that doesn’t happen and they will probably succeed. They are very good at being a minority and they have absolutely no intention of ever doing anything that will benefit the democratic party. At this point they don’t even have any intention of doing anything that will benefit George W. Bush.

Pelosi has two things she has to do. She has to keep the Republicans on the deefensive throughout the next two years and set the table for a Democratic win in 08. There is no “working with” George W. Bush. He is poison and his political advisors are doing nothing but trying to keep him from being chased out of iraq before he leaves office. Period. They have no other agenda.

Considering all of the attention to the Burtons, Pelosi should do what Phil Burton would do as long as she can communicate a better justification than Burton could for Why she is doing something (again, back to bypassing the DC set).

The DC Press Corps is going to do everything in their power to damn Pelosi for what they never even wrote about the Republicans doing. Pelosi needs to realize this and act accordingly.

She has two options, she let them give it to her the ugly way or she can circumvent those who have been proven wrong again and again. Only the latter will give the American People the policy we deserve.

Some say the feud between Nancy Pelosi and Ellen Tauscher has always existed. Some say that it that it is a Hatfield-McCoy stories that goes back generations in east coast politics. But one thing is clear, it erupted in the press during the summer of 2001:

The story nonetheless laid bare a dispute that belies the solidarity of Bay Area delegation, arguably the most liberal in the nation. Its origins are a matter of dispute. Some believe Tauscher sees Pelosi as competition. Some believe Pelosi feels betrayed after helping Tauscher first get elected in 1996.

The rift has isolated Tauscher to a certain degree from her California colleagues, who almost universally are behind Pelosi.

“I’ve searched my heart why Ellen Tauscher would not support Nancy Pelosi for whip,” said California Sen. Barbara Boxer, a firm Pelosi backer who was appalled at Tauscher’s assertions. “I cannot figure out in my wildest imagination as to why she is not excited at this history-making prospect. Her doing this says to me she is a very bitter person.”

Boxer wasn’t the only California Democrat who was “appalled” at Tauscher not supporting a fellow woman of the delegation, the move infuriated John Burton (who many people at the time viewed as almost as powerful than the governor and overly protective of Pelosi.

It wasn’t just the fact Tauscher abandoned Pelosi that made the situation so controversial, it was also the manner in which the story exploded:

In a culture where even the worst of political enemies are referred to as “my good friend,” each struggles to find nice things to say about the other.

Their long-running dispute spilled onto the front pages of Roll Call — the newspaper of Capitol Hill — with an eyebrow-raising banner headline: “Pelosi Denies Whip Threats: Tauscher Charges Intimidation” as members were preparing to adjourn for their summer recess.

The Roll Call made no attempt to conceal the fact that the story was all Tauscher’s doing:

Exposing a rift between two of the House’s most powerful women, Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) charged this week that allies of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the state Legislature are threatening to weaken Tauscher’s district in redistricting as retribution for her decision to back Pelosi’s opponent in the race for party Whip.  […]

The rumors, according to Tauscher and associates both in Washington and California, began soon after.

If Tauscher’s first mistake was shivving Pelosi, her second mistake was to go whining to Roll Call about it:

Tauscher charged that the effort is being led by state Sen. John Burton (D), a former Member of Congress and close Pelosi associate who is now the Senate’s President Pro Tempore. […]

Though he evidently intended to bury the rumors Burton nonetheless made little effort to disguise his contempt for Tauscher, suggesting that she was inviting trouble by voicing her concerns.

“The best way to get a problem with me is to run crying to the press,” Burton said gruffly.

Burton described his close relationship with each of the Members in the Bay Area delegation, but pointedly excluded Tauscher from the list, concluding, “Ellen is not one to determine where her district would be.”

In the end, Tauscher’s two blunders ended up with Burton creating a new 10th District that would remove any fear of Tauscher losing in a general, but one that was specifically designed to allow her to lose in a primary if she kept undermining Pelosi.

Tauscher wasn’t redistricted out of a seat, but was given a clear shape up or ship out choice.

Yet Tauscher was defiant, insisting that she would continue her DLC push to water down the Democratic Party.

Remember, Tauscher’s one of Washington’s rising Blue Dog Democrats — she’s vice chair of the Democratic Leadership Council — and that leaves the liberal Bay Area Democrats feeling blue. […]

“Our party is trending toward districts like mine — coalition swing Democratic districts,” Tauscher said. “The old guard is threatened by us. There’s a real concerted effort to say, ‘We don’t want to grow any more like her.’

“The fact is, I’ve worked hard with my Bay Area colleagues. I don’t rub their noses in the fact that the DLC picked up four seats in the last election.

If we’re going to get the majority (in the House), we need to be more moderate.”

Since then, Tauscher’s side has been rejected by Democrats while Pelosi is about to be sworn in as Speaker.

Not only did Tauscher end up on the wrong side of history, potentially even worse is she ended up on the wrong side of Burton, who does all he can to help Pelosi:

In San Francisco, Pelosi’s friends and allies concede that one adviser stands head and shoulders above the rest: John Burton, the tart-tongued liberal famous for championing the cause of the poor, elderly and homeless in Sacramento and as a House member in Washington. His sister-in-law, the late Rep. Sala Burton, wife of legendary San Francisco Rep. Phil Burton, summoned Pelosi to her deathbed to urge her to run for Congress.

It was Burton’s top goal to get Pelosi the gavel, which has been completed. Now it is time to shore up Pelosi’s support, which begins in a district Burton knows so well you’d think he drew it himself.

Josh Richman writing in the Contra Costa Times picked up on the blogosphere outrage at Ellen Tauscher undermining Speaker Pelosi by negotiating directly with bush.

“If he’d agree to meet with them every day it would be fantastic,” guest blogger mcjoan wrote on the popular Emeryville-based liberal blog DailyKos.com, launching a thread several hundred comments long.

“But the leadership has to be able to lead, and this move by Bush is an end-run around the leadership,” she wrote. “It’s an effort by the administration to peel away a block of Democrats that have, to the party’s detriment, shown their willingness to buck party leadership. It’s about respecting party leadership, staying unified within the caucus, and maintaining the strength that will be necessary to get good legislation passed. A unified caucus will be able to accomplish more. This move fractures the caucus.”

Mr. Richman deserves credit for noticing the online angst Tauscher’s move has generated, with Democratic bloggers disgusted to see Pelosi’s leadership publicly undermined before she is even sworn in as Speaker.

Yesterday, Calitics had three front page posts on Ellen Tauscher (1, 2, 3), which shouldn’t surprise anyone who has followed online bloggers’ disgust with Tauscher’s actions before and after the election.

In fact, every time Tauscher undermines the Democratic Party, it provides fuel for progressive bloggers, as Chris Bowers explained:

Here is why I will continue to fgiht: because as long as Ellen Tauscher and her ilk are running the Democratic Party, the conservative movement will continue to rise. Ellen Tauscher can’t beat the conservative movement. She and her friends showed us this time and time again from 1978-2004 just how utterly ineffective they are at doing anything except ushering in a new era of Republican dominance. As long as they are in leadership positions of the Democratic Party, the only avenue available to stop the conservative movement on the electoral front, this country that I love so dearly will continue on a long, downward spiral. Both defeating Republicans and wiping their Democratic enablers out of power is the only way to save my country.

Ellen Tauscher, just so you know, when you have a surprisingly strong and well funded primary challenger with tons of volunteers and lots of support in the progressive media come out of seemingly nowhere in 2008, just look over the cliff to see where that challenger is coming from. At the bottom, you will see me standing there, with hundreds and thousand of my friends and colleagues. We will be in the process of forming a human ladder for your challenger to use to climb up the cliff. When s/he reaches the top, don’t be surprised if more than a few of us come along, and suddenly you find yourself outnumbered, even as you stand next to your twenty-seven new friends. And then we will see who gets run over the cliff next.

With Tauscher showing no signs of having learned for the election results and bloggers clearly tracking her moves, the 2008 primary election in CA-10 has the potential to be more than failure to extend employment, it is shaping up like a movement.

Another day comes and goes.  Lou Correa is officially the victor, and with that, the California elections in 2006 are officially over. Thank goodness.  That dragged on for quite a while, huh? Ok, today’s news teasers: Marc Cooper and Harry Reid, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the California GOP, and Latino voters, CCPOA pay hikes, Harman and Pelosi, and Sacto’s message to the NBA.  And some other stuff…

My first pug, which my parents got when I was in high school, just died.  He had cancer and it was his time. He was a venerable 14 years, and was quite simply, a great dog.  He was sweet and playful, and I will miss him.  Pugsley’s the fawn one, the black one is my pug, Popeye.
Pugsley, 1992-2006

Well, this one’s a bit on the late side, so I guess it will also serve as a weekend appetizer.  Teasers: Ellen Tauscher…grrr, Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, Arnold shakeup?, and an earlier primary?  More over the flip…

I’ve been meaning to compliment Jon Fleischman on these pages, but I never got around to it.  He recently added a blogscan feature that is a bit easier to use than Around the Capitol’s blogscan.  It lets you sort by left, right, and neither.  Pretty handy.

Let’s get straight to it… Teasers: Duncan Hunter for president (no, really), Nancy Pelosi…doing Pelosi stuff, the cash path, Jerry McNerney, and Charlie Brown is a tough SOB. 

Move along past the flip.