I once saw a funny stand-up comedian who had a great bit about things one can say to soften the blow of insults. A person could say almost anything, just so long as they prefaced it by certain qualifiers. “That guy is blisteringly stupid, bless his heart.” Or maybe, “I can’t believe how ugly that person is, the poor thing.” Or the old standby: “With all due respect, that guy is a pathetic clown.”
Maybe House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saw the same bit.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called President Bush “a total failure” on Thursday, among the California Democrat’s harshest assessments to date of the president.
“God bless him, bless his heart, president of the United States — a total failure, losing all credibility with the American people on the economy, on the war, on energy, you name the subject,” Pelosi told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in an exclusive interview.
See? It’s not entirely insulting to Bush, because Pelosi prefaced her criticisms by saying, “God bless him, bless his heart.” She’s not attacking the president as a “total failure”; she feels sorry for him because he’s a “total failure.” It’s totally different.
White House Press Secretary Dana Perino responded, “What the president said is a fact — this is the longest a Congress has gone in 20 years without passing a single spending bill, so it’s clear that the speaker is feeling some frustration at their inability to do so.”
Well, maybe, but it seems more likely to me that Speaker Pelosi really believes the president is a “total failure.” She may very well be frustrated about the progress on the Hill, but I get the sense that’s a separate issue altogether.
Oddly enough, several conservative blogs were not at all pleased about Pelosi’s comments, and most pointed to Congress’ low approval rating as evidence of … well, I’m not quite sure what they think it’s evidence of. Apparently, Bush’s failures as a president are roughly equivalent to Congress’ weak numbers in the polls. Or something. It’s a little unclear.
As it happens, I’m not entirely sure why Pelosi’s comments would even be especially controversial. Mildly impolite, sure. But I’m hard pressed to imagine anyone seriously examining Bush’s presidency, and considering it a “success” in any way.
On a related note, Pelosi also talked to CNN about energy policy.
In the wide-ranging interview, the entirety of which will air Sunday on CNN’s “Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer,” Pelosi also reiterated her longtime opposition to lifting a congressional ban on offshore drilling as well as opening up areas such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska for oil exploration. Bush and congressional Republicans have pushed for those two policy changes.
Pelosi has long opposed drilling offshore, a popular policy position among Californians, many of whom fear its environmental consequences along the state’s coastline.
But a recent CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll showed that more than 73 percent of Americans polled approved of lifting the 1981 ban, and the move holds support among many in Pelosi’s own party, whose constituents are growing increasingly angry over rising gas prices.
Pelosi said the oil industry is not aggressively exploring large amounts of federal areas already leased to them and approved for drilling, including 33 million offshore acres and 68 million acres in the lower 48 states. She has sponsored legislation calling on oil companies to increase their production in those areas before they are allowed to go into the offshore areas currently banned.
“Thirty-three million acres offshore are allowed for leasing,” she said. “And we’re saying to them, use it or lose it. You have the opportunity to drill there. When you have exhausted those remedies, then you can talk about something else.”
I haven’t seen or heard the entire interview, so I don’t know what else Pelosi emphasized, but I hope more Democratic leaders make a point of explaining that increased drilling wouldn’t affect gas prices until 2017, at the earliest, and even then, probably not by much.
The polls seem to be pretty one-sided, in large part because consumers, desperate for a break, hope that something, anything, might save them some money at the pump. Opponents of coastal drilling just need to tell them truth: we could start drilling off Miami Beach this morning, but it wouldn’t change a thing.