The Queen Bee Of Congress Gets It In

I know a lot of people have issues with Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and much of it is warranted. However I think its time that we took a moment and acknowleded that she is putting in some major work for liberals and progressives right now. While everyone is focused on Max Baucus' adventures in the Senate Finance committee with health care reform legislation, what is often overlooked is that Speaker Pelosi has guided all three committees in the House to get some pretty progressive health care reform legislation out of committtee and ready for reconciliation and a floor vote. That wasn't an easy feat and I realize that the bills aren't quite as progressives as some folks would want but you can't deny that she deserves respect for getting it done before the August break. This comes after she found a way to get a cap and trade bill through the House before the previous Congressional break.

And now with word of the White House supposedly backing off of a public option, once again Speaker Pelosi has stepped up to the plate for us.

Nancy Pelosi just blasted out this statement signaling that House Dems are standing firm behind the public option, despite the White House’s apparent softening of support for it over the weekend:

“As the President stated in March, ‘The thinking on the public option has been that it gives consumers more choices and it helps keep the private sector honest, because there’s some competition out there.’

“We agree with the President that a public option will keep insurance companies honest and increase competition.

“There is strong support in the House for a public option. In the House, all three of our bills contain a public option as does the bill from the Senate HELP Committee.

“A public option is the best option to lower costs, improve the quality of health care, ensure choice and expand coverage.

“The public option brings real reform to lower costs over the 10 year period of the bill.”

Now to be sure she didnt' exactly draw a line in the sand, but ask yourself a question. What other Democratic leader in Congress has done a better job of advocating for progressive policies than Speaker Pelosi? I personally can't think of anyone.

I am not by any means suggesting that people should just forgive and forget some of the things Speaker Pelosi did in the past like taking impeachment off the table for President Bush. But what I am saying is we need to start giving her props when they are due as well.