Situation Room onscreen text: Is Pelosi "Damaged Goods?"
On the November 16 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, host Wolf Blitzer asked "how badly is [Rep.] Nancy Pelosi [D-CA] damaged politically?" while the question "Damaged Goods?" was displayed on screen. Blitzer was referring to an "intraparty battle" among House Democrats, in which Pelosi backed Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA) to be House majority leader but Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) was ultimately elected.
From the November 16 edition of CNN's The Situation Room at 4 p.m. ET:
BLITZER: Up next, much more on the race for the White House and which candidates have the early edge. [Democratic strategist] Paul Begala and [CNN political analyst and former U.S. Rep.] J.C. Watts [R-OK], they're standing by to weigh in.
Plus, intraparty battle. Is the fight among House Democrats over, and how badly is Nancy Pelosi damaged politically? Find out in today's strategy session. That's coming up next.
Let the woman DO something first. Crikey! The NYT is already calling her lost bid for Murtha an 'embarrasment'. Really? Is the deck really stacked this high?
I get the feeling that the MSM really hate Pelosi... wonder why.
Because she is a women, the MSM does not like women, look at how Senator Clinton has been treated with hateful statements by the MSM. Rep. Pelosi will be attacked throughout the next 2 years. MMFA will be more important than ever to stop the hate.
Yes, the MSM is carrying the misogynistic line of woman bashing, but that is because the MSM is currently an extention of the paternalistic, "good-'ol-boy", "evangelical" Rightwing "Promise Keeper" Republicans, who long for a return to a time when men were men, and women were barefoot and pregnant, fixing dinner for their husbands, pleasant and quiet, and ever available for sex.
The trouble started when women were allowed to OWN property, instead of BEING property. Then they got the vote. Oh My God! The "men", who really have a problem with their masculinity, felt very threatened, frightened, and self-doubting (much as they felt when the government intervened and said BLACKS had the same right to job access). It was time to grab the pitchforks and take to the streets, like an old Frankenstein movie.
Now men with this same mindset have purchased THE MEDIA, and it reflects their views. Women CANNOT have real POWER. They can't handle it, is the excuse, but the REAL reason is that the rightwing "man" cannot handle the competition, the loss of total control, the loss of paternalistic tyranny WHICH IS HIS TRADITIONAL BIRTHRIGHT.
Overstated? Not really. As this example, and the example mentioned earlier of Hillary Clinton clearly demonstrate, there is an irrational and emotional reflexive HATRED for any woman who dares aspire to POWER, of any sort. This is doubly hateful if that woman does not espouse the virtues of WAR, of hunting, of those rightwing "manly" pursuits which serve and constant reinforcements to the rightwinger that HE is a MAN.
This works even when OTHERS are doing the dying, while the rightwinger had the chance and opted out ... in fact, this demonstrates WHY the rightwing "power broker" needs to crush the powerful woman: He knows in his heart that HE, personally, is a physical coward, and a bully.
Bush and Cheney, warmongers who failed to serve when they had their chance. Foley and Taggart, evangelical "holier-than-thou" gay bashers who -- SURPRISE! -- are gay themselves. The examples are RICH that explain WHY every move in these people's lives is guided by bolstering an image that they KNOW is a farce. All Rightwing POLICY is an extension of this mindset, that white males are the "CHOSEN" ones, and all others must grovel for boots, so they can pull themselves up by the straps.
They must struggle to preserve the IMAGE of their manhood, and so they must attack any women who dare to intrude on their positions of entitlement and favor.
What a bunch of pansies these rightwingers are. Gutless posers, sissified parodies of "machismo", but ever so dangerous to America.
You got all that over two little words superimposed on an early evening cable news show?
I wonder if the same "damaged goods" phrase was onscreen over a Condolezza Rice photo - would you be so eloquently prophesizing over the enslavement of women then?
Condi is an excellent example of what the rightwing believe a woman should BE and DO. She has done NOTHING AT ALL, nothing that can be pointed to, that either shows her competent at national security (MEMO: Bin LADEN TO ATTACK ... was an "historical" document to her, needing no action whatsoever, a monumental blunder with horrific consequences), or as a statesperson (since Bush rejects "diplomacy" as a matter of principle, she gets to fly around trying to look pretty, and accomplishing NOTHING).
So, ABSOLUTELY, Condi is part of the rightwing paternalistic/misogynistic formula, put in place as an impotent and incompetent figurehead, with no abilities, no powers, and no respect. THE BOYS will run things, set policy, castrate peaceful means, and go "full speed ahead" with their NeoCon plans. Condi is expected to, and does, just "go along" ... and be supportive. THAT is not a "strong" woman, that is what used to be called a "doormat".
If we Democrats believe a fair shake from the MSM is to be had, then we’re lost before we started!!
Rep. Nancy Pelosi is a seasoned pragmatist/politician who knows that when it's time to start the parade and when it's time to let them speculate. If she thinks every news cycle is worth fighting for, she'll be lead around by the nose by the MSM, and as a consequence the RNC.
I believe she has an agenda that relies on the incremental steps toward an end game of repair, restore, and defense of a democracy that has been crippled by the Presidents power grab, and a Congress that’s been asleep at the wheel for 6years without oversight.
I like Pelosi because she has little worries about the rattle of the Republican’s saber, the insults, or insinuations about her intentions. I believe she’ll make her allies among the membership, and those who know will remember she was a loyal ally when Murtha called in his marker.
Murtha stood up for Pelosi to be Minority Leader and she did not forget or flake!! That kind of loyalty earns the kind of political capital that can be spent for the things that matter.
Happy Thoughts;
Dan Grady
I just have one question for you, face:
is Wolf Blitzer a giant douchebag?
I just have one question for you, furnace:
is Wolf Blitzer a giant douchebag?
I don't recall them EVER having an onscreen text asking if bush (lowercase intentional) is "damaged goods".
And it's gonna get worse with this media. The Dems are always placed on the defensive, always pictured as flakes and screwups. It's been that way since the late 80's.
What surprises me is that this has happened so soon after the election-- no honeymoon, everything's already doom and gloom. And by Thursday, McCain had already been annointed as the next likely president!
Solution? Dems have to spend several hundred million dollars getting their message out in commercials over the next two years. It's the only way they can control their message.
need to buy Media Outlets. Then they can control the "NEWS" like Corporate America does now. Wolf Blitzer is a blithering idiot. America needs a Real Liberal Media!
Doesn't this term mean a woman who lost her virginity out of wedlock? Pretty sick stuff, CNN.
with being a woman. it's more right wing lunatic talking points from the media. blitzer is after all a dittohead. i heard him interviewing limbaugh a couple years ago and he said "when i was listenting this afternoon as i do every day...." how anyone with half a brain can stomach that crap is beyond me. clearly pelosi cannot go on. she's already failed. i believe that's the contention?
So murtha and hoyer both wanted to be Maj. leader.
what is pelosi supposed to do? she had to show some support for one of them, so she chose murtha, who has stood by her and helped her out a lot, and he also has been a strong voice of opposition not afraid of conservative hit-jobs.
that does NOT mean she can't get along with or work well with hoyer. this is just a baseless assumption and all the claims of the "bitterness" is completely made-up.
If the media is going to use emotionally charged language like that, they need to back it up. i didn't hear a sound byte of anything "bitter" coming from hoyer or pelosi. they're obviously trying to manufacture some controversy.
she doesn't have 100% consensus in her party. Should be an interesting two years!
The two years will be rendered interesting mostly by the MSM's unwarranted attacks on Pelosi as a woman, rather than on Bungle as a moron; and on Pelosi as a Democrat, rather than on Bungle as the evil tyrant responsible for the unwarranted surveillance and all the other abrogations of our Constitutional liberties
But - that makes you right, at least, that it will be an interesting period.
Thank GOD she doesn't have 100% consensus.
The last 5 years shows us what 100% consensus gets you. The emperor had no clothes and no one in the Republican party would tell him!!!
... dared inform the Emperor he was nekkid.
General Shinsaki told Shrub we needed to go into Iraq with overwhelming force. Bush wanted a more modest showing of invasion, so the General was fired.
Ambassador Wilson had the timerity to inform Bush that his information on Iraqi nuclear capabilities was based on BAD INTEL. For that, Wilson AND HIS WIFE had to be destroyed.
The list is short of those who, having AMERICA in mind instead of fealty to the monarch, tried to inform the Emperor of what was REAL, rather than the fantasy world the Bush Administration built for themselves in the safety of the White House. All were scorned, all were called TRAITORS, all were branded with collaborating with the terrorists.
So, it wasn't that NOBODY noticed the Emperor had his wanger hanging out. It's that those who DARED inject reality were targeted for destruction. "OFF WITH HIS HEAD", yelled the Queen of Hearts.
>>"Well, it certainly appears she doesn't have 100% consensus in her party. Should be an interesting two years!"<<
Remember that thing called "Congress" we once had? It's a legislative, deliberative, representative body---not the Republican rubber stamping group of yes-men that it's been the past six years under George Bush.
Listen, when there's "100% consensus" SOMETHING IS VERY WRONG.
See, that's been the WHOLE problem with you guys- nobody questions Dear Leader, oh NO, certainly not! That's why you LOST.
We don't operate marching in lockstep, unlike the 'thugs. That's just ONE big difference between the two parties.
We actually WELCOME different opinions, rather than question the patriotism of those who don't agree- gee, what a concept, huh?
like the Rubber Stamp Republican Congress that just got voted out.
I would never win the trophy for best feminist on the planet but that is the worst sexist gaffe from MSM I have ever seen. Ever. "Damaged GOODS?" Egad.
A gaffe? I dunno. I find it hard to believe the headline writers are unfamiliar with the meaning of the expression.
That is, I truly wonder if it was done by mistake.
I mean, the entire point of this post is to highlight yet another example of the Corpulent Media being a part of the enemy. And I do not use the term "enemy" loosely. They, like the Repub leadership, are literally enemies of America. If they weren't, they'd be telling us the truth, and presenting things fairly. They do not. They do not come close. They lie through their collective frickin' teeth, in fact. Now Job One is discrediting Pelosi and painting her as weak and embattled two months before she takes on her new job. This is not the work of a fair and unbiased medium.
...over bloody nothing. They are like girls at a slumber party, snarkily dealing dirt to make themselves look busy.
TO: CNN
You're damaging your own credibility as a news outlet when you suggest Nancy may be "Damaged Goods.” Then you added insult to injury when you called Rep. John Murtha, (Nancy's Choice), a loser! He's no loser. After this election all the Democrats, the voters and our country are winners. It's the Republicans who are "Damaged Goods," and "Losers." Where the heck is your story on that.
CNN’s Situation Room is "Damaged Goods" and has lost my respect when you decided to attack Nancy, John Murtha and other Democrats.
Where is your "Damaged Goods" and "Loser" story on Republicans such as the Racists Trent Lott and George"Macaca"Allen. Allen was headed for a run for the Presidency. Allen made a racist attack comment to a young brown shinned man. He lost Republican control of the Senate to the Democrats and his run for President all by saying one word (Macaca).
After this historic election, where is your negative story on President GWB. The mandate of the election told GWB we want to exit his war. He admits he was “Thumped by the voters” but he continues his “Stay The Course” policy by sending even more troops. Why is there no report on the Republican "Losers" in the Senate and House.
Where is your "Damaged Goods" report on Fox News, the advertising and promotional agency for the Republicans. How about a story on all the Right-Wing Pundit Losers. Rush Limbaugh was the only one to admit that he is relieved that he doesn’t have to support a bunch of Republicans who don’t deserve his support.
I've always admired Ted Turner's CNN in the past. But now Ted is gone and CNN seems to be lowering its standards. Please don't become another Fox News. Don't Do That! Hire reporters like Walter Cronkite. They will clean up your act in the Situation Room. Walter denounced the Vietnam War and helped expose Republican President Nixon’s Watergate Scandal. Nixon was kicked out of office, and his successor, R. President Ford, pardoned Nixon for his crimes.
Take Care .... Sam
Countdown with Keith Olbermann, and The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. This is the Complete "Liberal TV Media". The rest of CNN, MSNBC, and All of Fox News are Corporate Shill TV.
I have to echo others' comments about letting Pelosi do something before they condemn her to oblivion. So the man she supported for majority leader lost. Whoop-dee-do! They elected another guy, and she'll work with him to get things done. She wanted Murtha, she got Hoyer. It's not a big deal, but from what I've read in media outlets today and yesterday, she's already crumbling and has no power, because she didn't get who she wanted. Didn't Newt also not get the majority leader he wanted? He didn't seem to have any issues in running things even after that "bitter" defeat. Come on people, let her do something before attacking her left and right.
Nancy Pelosi is "damaged goods"? Well gee whiz, I guess I won't ask her to the Prom.
So now Nacy Pelosi has to go sit in the corner with the other "damaged goods" like our Constitution and The Geneva Conventions.
The media needs to move on. She was with Hoyer for 4 years when he was her top lieutenant, and now it will be the same. She endorsed Murtha out of loyalty because he was was a mentor to her for many years and was her campaign manager in her race to become House Minority Leader 4 years ago. It didn't happen. Now everybody will move on. Damaged goods should be the term applied to the Republican leadership. Trent Lott as the number two Republican in the Senate after he was forced to resign in disgrace four years ago, John Boehner and Roy Blunt as the number one and number two Republicans in when they were the ones in charge when the massive Republican collapse took place and are part of the stale, tired, old Republican leadership whose corruption was part of the reason the Republicans lost their twelve year majority in the first place. If anyone is damaged goods, they are. As for Blitzer, he is beneath contempt. He has been a shill for Republicans for many years. He is a sad man with a bad beard and an ANNOYING voice.
THANK YOU. njguy93@yahoo.com
I would stand with the Democratic Leadership well before I would be seen in the same state as the Republican Leadership!!
Pelosi/Hoyer lead the most unified Democratic Caucuss 40 years and retook the House from the Republicans.
The Republicans had a Boehner and squeezed out a Lott! None of it good!!
Happy Thoughts;
Dan Grady
retaining a Boehner for too long is bad for you.
THANK YOU. njguy93@yahoo.com
If he lasts more than four hours, the Republicans should go to the emergency room.
The media and the right-wing pundits (well, all of the pundits, really) are turning this into a MAJOR STORY, but does the average American give even the tiniest little mousefart whether the Speaker got her choice as 2nd fiddle? Does the average American even know what that position is or what it entails? What a joke. This is on a par with the "Kerry hates the troops" nonsense.
Yeah, it's outrageous. But to be expected. Stay tuned for more of the same and be prepared to combat it.
This is just one of the more extreme examples of what seems to be the consensus narrative on the Murtha-Hoyer vote. Keith Olbermann, Arianna Huffington, Kos, etc. notwithstanding, most of MSM played this as a blunder by Pelosi.
Democrats in Dissaray is one of the MSM's standard pre-packaged stories that will be trotted out again and again.
The marker was set early on: Can Pelosi, who represents a very liberal district, manage the full spectrum of Dems in the House? Expect the press to be ready to pounce with a resounding, "No!" given any opening.
We won't really know the answer to that until way past the first 100 hours. Dig in on this for the long haul.