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Everybody wants leaders, she said in an interview in her office at the Capitol, during which she was often as dismissive of critics in her own party as she was of the Republican opposition. Not a lot of people want to be led.

The Democrats loss on Tuesday in the special House election in Georgia illustrated how she has become a lightning rod for conservative attacks. Millions of dollars of ads in a red-tinted suburban Atlanta district linked Ms. Pelosi to a candidate, Jon Ossoff, who had not even committed to supporting her as party leader.

With the Clintons and former President Barack Obama in retirement, Ms. Pelosi, the well-known former House speaker, is vital to Republicans as the embodiment of liberalism: She lives in San Francisco, comes from a politically connected background and a wealthy household, and pushed through the Affordable Care Act, all of which plays right into the hands of most Republican candidates running between the coasts. On Thursday, renewing a long-running conservative trope about how much Republicans value her as a foil, Mr. Trump tweeted that he hoped Democrats do not force Nancy P out.

To many Democrats, Ms. Pelosi is their own indispensable woman, a legislative genius, tactical wizard and prolific fund-raiser whose ability to hold together a fractious caucus is written in her own success in passing many laws, and blocking even more.

But some in her caucus have reached a different conclusion: She is not, well, worth it.

Representative Kathleen Rice, Democrat of New York, said flatly that Democrats had lost their way and could not win the majority back with Ms. Pelosi leading the party. Ms. Rice hosted a Thursday afternoon meeting of just over a dozen anti-Pelosi House Democrats, according to Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio, who attended. The would-be coup plotters did not emerge with any action items, Mr. Ryan said.

The Republican playbook for the past four election cycles has been very focused, very clear: Its been an attack on our leader, Ms. Rice said. Is it fair? No. Are the attacks accurate? No. But guess what? They work. Theyre winning, and were losing.

Even allies of Ms. Pelosi say they would be uneasy about her coming to their districts for public events, a practice she has largely given up as she has become such a focal point for Republican attacks.

Representative John Yarmuth, Democrat of Kentucky, heaped praise on Ms. Pelosis leadership skills but demurred when asked if he would want her to go to Louisville.

Not at a rally, he said.

Ms. Pelosi, boasting that she was the biggest fund-raiser in the country still in office, dismissed suggestions that her time had passed. And she could not help but note that her critics did not mind benefiting from her financial prowess.

You know what? I want them to win. I want them to win, she said of those who want her fund-raising help but would just as soon avoid being photographed with her. If I were bothered by that, I wouldnt be raising the money. What is curious to me is people say, Raise us all the money and then step aside. Its like, what?

Since entering the House Democratic leadership in 2002, Ms. Pelosi has raised nearly $568 million for her party. Just in the 2016 election cycle, she raised over $141 million.

Ask any Democrat why Ms. Pelosi is so valuable, and invariably, her ability to raise money will be cited.

Yet her allies say she supplies much more than cash, praising her ability to impose member discipline and her skills as a back-room dealer, in the admiring words of Representative Dina Titus, Democrat of Nevada.

Representative Steve Cohen, Democrat of Tennessee, hailed her deftness at herding cats.

Its been a lot of work for her to kind of keep us away from impeachment and on health care and the economy, Mr. Cohen said. Of her fund-raising supremacy, he said, Shes good at the wealthier folk.

But after Mr. Ossoff, the Democratic nominee in the Georgia race, harnessed online liberal fervor to raise at least $25 million, largely from small contributions, and Senator Bernie Sanders did the same to bankroll his presidential bid, the value of high-dollar fund-raising is increasingly in question. Some on the left even argue that it is detrimental to the partys image.

You cant tell people youre against big money, that youre fighting for the average American, and then spend so much of your time with PACs and corporate interests and the very wealthy, said Representative Beto ORourke, a Texas Democrat who has been frustrated with Ms. Pelosi and is running for the Senate. In any case, Mr. ORourke added, if money were the critical factor, wed be in the majority right now.

In the interview, as a bank of TVs aired footage of the Senate health care debate, Ms. Pelosi said repeatedly that she would prefer to discuss policy.

I am a master legislator, she said.

But when pressed, she talked at length and in bracingly frank terms about why she was under fire in her caucus and why it would not impede her.

I think there was a level of disappointment after the election for president, because I think a number of people here thought they were destined for the administration, Ms. Pelosi said, diagnosing the renewed restlessness among some House Democrats.

Others in the caucus, she suggested, were simply preening for future campaigns. It may serve their purpose statewide to say, I fought the leadership, she said. And I respect that.

She said that no Democratic lawmakers had approached her about stepping down since the Georgia contest. And, taking aim at the band of mostly young House Democrats agitating for her to go, she claimed that their criticism had drawn her allies closer: People just flock to support me, she said.

As for why the right so delights in elevating her, Ms. Pelosi said it was because she had been so effective. But she also said that the Republicans targeting her believed her gender made her more polarizing than other political leaders, and that the rights fixation on her hometown grew out of San Franciscos identity as a haven of tolerance for gays and lesbians.

Tying unpopular, and well-known, congressional figures to others in their party seeking election is hardly a novel strategy. Republicans used the same playbook when Tip ONeill, a Massachusetts Democrat, was House speaker, portraying him as the picture of liberal excess. And the right spent decades inserting Senator Edward M. Kennedys well-known face and Boston brogue into commercials against Democrats running on more conservative terrain.

But the irony now is that, while Ms. Pelosi is a down-the-line progressive, she is hardly representative of the Sanders left on economic issues, or of the interest-group enforcers of cultural liberalism. She is resisting calls for House Democrats to run on single-payer health care coverage and is an unapologetic pragmatist when it comes to those in her ranks who deviate from orthodoxy.

When a debate about abortion flared earlier this year, Ms. Pelosi made it plain that there was a home in the party for those who oppose abortion rights.

The caricature of Ms. Pelosi as an elite California liberal is also faulty. She is more a product of the bare-knuckle Baltimore political clubhouse where she learned politics at the knee of her father, the mayor than the Pacific Heights chardonnay-and-canaps circuit. Have your fun, she said at a news conference Thursday, all but taunting her intraparty detractors. I thrive on competition.

A vast majority of House Democrats expect no such competition, at least not at the moment.

Nobody pushed Michael Jordan into retirement, said Representative Emanuel Cleaver II, Democrat of Missouri.

Emily Cochrane contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on June 23, 2017, on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Facing Dissent, Pelosi Fires Back: I Think Im Worth the Trouble.

The rest is here:
Nancy Pelosi Tells Democratic Critics, 'I Think I'm Worth the Trouble' - New York Times

Poor Johnny Depp. Despite earning more than $650 million over 13 or so years, hes gone near broke. While a rational person might try and cull his $2-million-a-month lifestyle, Depp apparently thought the best way to rehabilitate his image was to tell a half-edgy joke about killing the president.

It looks like death threats are the new sex tapes. Just ask Kathy Griffin.

But its not like you or I could get away with making insinuations or direct threats against the presidents life. For starters, the Secret Service wouldnt give us the benefit of the doubt because of our celebrity status. Regular people arent allowed to make such jokes and use our eccentricity as cover.

Besides, even if the government decided not to investigate, the left wouldnt let us live us down. After all, look at what theyve done to people guilty of far less.

In our first stop on our trip down Memory Lane, we find ourselves in Jefferson City at the annual Missouri State Fair where a rodeo clown received a lifetime ban after he wore a President Barack Obama mask. After receiving blowback from Democratic state lawmakers, the fair put out a written statement lamenting the unconscionable stunt.

Unconscionable.

The Holocaust, the Khmer Rouge, the genocide in Darfur, the 2013 Missouri State Fair. All great tragedies of modernity.

If only that poor rodeo clown had appeared in a Pirates of the Caribbean sequel, he might still have a job.

Lesser-known examples include a Houston news anchor who was fired back in November for expressing her belief that the United States had become more violent and racist under the Obama administration and blaming the former president for making the entire country hate one another.

A little kooky? Perhaps. Worthy of permanent unemployment in her line of work? Absolutely not.

How about the GOP staffer who had to resign from her position as a communications director for Congressman Steve Fincher because she made a few rude comments about the way Malia and Sasha Obama dress? Begging for the countrys forgiveness wasnt humiliating enough, she had to lose her job, too.

There are countless other low-level government bureaucrats, businessmen and celebrities (remember Hank Williams Jr.?Hes only just now returning to Monday Night Football after he made a stupid comment comparing Obama to Hitler) who all had to pay dearly literally for offhand comments about the last president. None of them wished violence against him, but they all triggered a switch in liberals brains that made them bully the offender into submission.

To be clear: I dont think Griffin or Depp deserve any sort of punishment for their inane stunts. The principle of free speech doesnt just mean the government should steer clear, it means that Americans shouldnt try to inflict as much misery on one another just because someone lost control of their verbal filter for a minute.

At the same time, if some liberal celebrity tries to act like theyre the victim next time a bunch of Trump supporters try organizing a boycott for a tasteless joke, spare the pity. Remember that the real victims of this kind of culture are mostly people youve never heard of.

Follow Joe Simonson on Twitter.

The rest is here:
Johnny Depp Is Lucky He's a Democrat - Heat Street

Rep. Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., said Thursday that Nancy Pelosi's time as a leader of the Democrats is over, as Democrats have been stuck in the minority since 2011, and have had no luck picking off Republican seats in special elections so far this year.

"Nancy Pelosi was a great speaker," Rice said on MSNBC. "She is a great leader. But her time has come and gone."

Rice backed Rep. Tim Ryan's bid to replace Pelosi as leader last year, and thus has long ago decided Pelosi needs to go. But she said the Democrats' failure to win the open seat in Georgia on Tuesday made it more clear that Democrats need new leadership.

"I sat in a meeting the other day, and I listened to a rationale as to how we should be happy as a caucus because we didn't lose as badly... two days ago as we did a year ago," she said. "But we're still losing."

Rice dismissed Pelosi's ability to raise money for Democrats, and said that money isn't helping Democrats win.

"If money that we are raising through her leadership is not helping us win elections, then we have to have this difficult conversation now," she said.

She also rejected the idea that by saying this out loud, she is accepting Republican criticism that Pelosi is an "out-of-touch, San Francisco liberal."

"I do not believe she's an out-of-touch, San Francisco liberal," she said. "I believe she is not the leader for the future of the Democratic Party."

Rice was one of a handful of Democrats who were raising questions about Pelosi's leadership after Tuesday's special election. Ryan, who tried to unseat her last year, said the Democrat brand is "toxic" in some areas of the country.

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House Democrat: Nancy Pelosi's time has 'come and gone' - Washington Examiner

Democratic candidate Ralph Northam in the Virginia governor race carries a significant lead over Republican Ed Gillespie according to a poll released late Wednesday.

The Democratearned 47 percent of the vote in the poll compared to Gillespies 39 percent support. Forty percent of Independent voters supported the Republican, compared to only 38 percent who supported the Democrat.

The former Republican party chair led with male voters, white voters, and Republicans with substantial leads, according to the Quinnipiac University poll. Northam led with women voters and non-white Voters in the poll.

Although Northams lead is just 47 39 percent, other data indicates the difficulty of the job facing Gillespie, Assistant Poll Director Peter Brown wrote in a statement. Voters have a mixed view of Gillespie. By a three-two margin, they see Northam favorably. And, voters say they would prefer that the Democrats control the State Legislature.

Republicanscurrently control both chambers of the state legislative assembly, and 48 percent of respondents in the poll report they wanted Democrats to take control. Only 41 percent said they liked Republican control of the statehouse.

Gillespie does have the economy going for him. The most important issue to voters in the poll was the states economy, and 42 percent of voters think that the Republican would handle the economy better than Northam whose support on the issue was 38 percent. Voters also asserted they felt that the Democrat would be better on education policy and health care.

This is the first poll of the general election. Northam blew progressive candidate Tom Perriello out of the water, and Gillespie edged out pro-Trump firebrand Corey Stewart in their respective primaries two weeks ago.

The poll included 1,145 registered voters from June 15 through June 20. It carried a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points in either direction.

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Democrat Takes Solid Lead In Key Virginia Race - The Daily Caller

President Donald Trump again blamed Senate Democrats for blocking the passage of a health care bill that no one outside of a handful of GOP lawmakers has actually seen yet.

Speaking Wednesday at a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Trump lamented criticism that his administration hasnt accomplished much yet and pointed a finger at Democratic lawmakers for slowing the passage of a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

If we went and got the single greatest health care plan in the history of the world, we would not get one Democrat vote, because theyre obstructionists, Trump claimed. If we came to you and said, Heres your plan, youre going to have the greatest plan in history, and youre going to pay nothing, theyd vote against it, folks.

Trump tweeted similar complaintsearlier Wednesday.

If we had even a little Democrat support, just a little, like a couple of votes, youd have everything. And you could give us a lot of votes and wed even be willing to change it and move it around and try and make it even better, he continued at the Iowa rally. But again,They just want to stop, they just want to obstruct. A few votes from the Democrats, seriously, a few votes from the Democrats, it could be so easy, so beautiful, and youd have cooperation.

What Trump failed to mention is that Senate Democrats havent actually had the opportunity to even read the bill, which Republican senators have written almost entirely behind closed doors. The unprecedented lack of transparencyhas drawn outrage from Democrats, the media and the public, while Republicans have falsely claimed that Democrats engaged in similar secrecy while writing the Affordable Care Act in 2009 and 2010.(Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he plans to release the text of the bill Thursday.)

Trump, who described the House version of the bill as mean, said Wednesday that he hopes Republicans will surprise the public with a plan with heart.

Reports, however, indicate that the Senate bill will be substantially similar to the one passed in the House last month. An estimated 23 million fewer people would have health care coverage under that bill, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis of it.

And as HuffPosts Jeffrey Young points out, the bills intent, regardless of what the Senate version looks like, is already clear. The purpose of this bill is to dramatically scale back the safety netso wealthy people and health care companies can get a massive tax cut, Young wrote this week.

The president also mocked Democrats for failing to pick up seats in special elections in Georgia and South Carolina on Tuesday, singling out Jon Ossoff, the Democrat who narrowly lost in Georgias 6th Congressional District.

They thought they were going to win last night in Atlanta, he said. And theyve been unbelievably nasty, really nasty. They spent close to $30 million on this kid, who forgot to live in the community he was in.

Trump then acknowledged that his criticism may not be doing Senate Republicans any favors in winning over their Democratic colleagues.

I am making it a little bit hard to get their support, but who cares? he said.

Originally posted here:
Trump Blames Democrats For Obstructing Health Care Bill They Haven't Seen Yet - HuffPost