Nancy Pelosi Rallies Capitol Democrats

Nancy Pelosi, responding to recent criticisms of Harry Reid’s “incompetent” remark and the failure of David Obey’s “double dark secret political retaliation slush fund” proposal, today gave a stirring speech to the Democratic caucus intended to rally them to the causes for which they strove so hard in the 2006 elections.

An excerpt is below:

“I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, the Democrats will once again prove ourselves as the party that is afraid of power, incapable of prosecuting either war or criminals, unable to face tyranny or criticism, and, if necessary, ready to pander to the smallest and most corrupt special interest groups and thereby do direct harm to the American people.

I promise you, here and now, that we will continue, until we are thrown from power like the dogs we are, to give up every time the path gets difficult, to capitulate and surrender when our strength is at its zenith, to undercut and undermine every effort by every person in every corner of this great nation who strives to protect us from xenophobes and barbarians pushing a return to a medieval mentality that is anathema to the very core of our party.

In short, regardless of the wishes of the American people or our constituents, we will not defend this country, regardless of how light the cost may be, and we will not push the legislative agenda which we promised last November: we shall surrender on defunding Iraq, we shall surrender on securing the borders, we shall surrender on forcing ethics reforms on congress, we shall surrender on reducing earmarks, we shall surrender on curtailing lobbyist power, we shall surrender on isolating sworn enemies of America, we shall surrender on supporting Israel’s right to exist, we shall surrender on stopping genocide in Darfur or other regions of Africa, we shall surrender on supporting those whom we appoint as heads of the armed forces or any other service, we shall surrender on the ceaseless investigation of every member of the Bush administration, we shall surrender on surrendering, and we shall surrender on being consistent on anything.


Even if, which I do not for a moment believe, we were to find a topic which we were not willing to surrender on, I know, in my heart, that we would find it in ourselves to surrender on that issue as well, for that is our Democratic hallmark since flaking out in the mid-60’s and turning our party over to embittered, drug-addled morons who seek to impress fatuous children instead of concentrating on the good of the country.

This I vow, before a God in whom I do not believe but pay lip service to in order to satisfy the arcane rituals of a country which I loathe, which is populated by people whom I despise.”