Nancy Pelosi's Abuses of Power Hurts Obama's Efforts for Bipartisanship

We've all heard the aphorism: "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely". No one currently exemplifies this time-tested truth more than Nancy Pelosi. Although Barack Obama is our President, Speaker Pelosi has exhibited a callous disregard for her opponents whether Republicans or members of her own party. She takes counsel from no one and scoffs with all those who disagree with her even the American public

Recently, Scott Brown won the late Senator Kennedy's senate seat (or, rather, "the people's seat") in Massachusetts. Brown campaigned against the current Democratic version of healthcare "reform", among other things. He referred to himself quite conspicuously as the "41st vote" against adoption of such legislation. He expressed his desire to work with Democrats to craft a new bipartisan approach to healthcare that focused on prohibiting insurance companies from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions, permitting competition between insurance companies across state lines and enacting tort reform to reduce the cost of unnecessary medical procedures that are often undertaken simply for fear of litigation. He also campaigned against the special interest giveaways that had undermined the integrity of the extant healthcare legislation.

Apparently, Pelosi didn't get the memo after Brown's shocking upset victory in Massachusetts, the bluest of blue states that other Democrats surely received as demonstrated by their actions since then. While the majority of Democrats in the Senate realize that The People had spoken and that a reset and a more bipartisan effort was needed to achieve public support for healthcare reform, Pelosi has continued to pursue a rejected approach that is opposed by a substantial majority of the U.S. electorate unabated.

Is this what Pelosi calls leadership? If so, she is more tone deaf that even her worst critic could have imagined. She is now attempting to circumvent the public will by a bald parliamentary maneuver that would attempt to pass the Senate version of healthcare legislation solely for the purpose of then modifying it through a process called "reconciliation" that does not require a cloture vote of 60 senators.

If Pelosi is allowed to proceed with such a cynical power play with the support of congressional Democrats, it will likely backfire in their faces come November. Even President Obama has expressed a more conciliatory tone (at least publicly) concerning healthcare reform, including suggesting that he is open to any good ideas from whatever source. So, in that respect, Obama is a rightfully and responsibly a bit chastened by the new paradigm since Brown's election and not outwardly displaying the megalomaniacal tendencies of the Speaker.

Based on Pelosi's actions, it is fairly evident that her quench for power is corrupting the process to such an extent that not even Obama has publicly supported her latest machinations. Even he realizes that too close an association with Pelosi is not good for him politically or for Democrats generally.

So whatever benefits that Obama may have realized as a result of his State of the Union address (which I will separately argue are very few), Pelosi seems intent on not being a team player and intent on upsetting the applecart of bipartisanship before it has even had a chance to germinate or potentially fail on its own.