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On Healthcare, Old-School Pelosi Gave Obama a Lesson in Politics
Tweet Share on Facebook March 26, 2010 Comment (33)By Jamie Stiehm, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
The president was saved by the belle.
Congress is a lot like high school--and the endgame of the House healthcare insurance reform vote unfolded true to form. My colleague and editor Robert Schlesinger gives the credit for the breakthrough Democratic victory to President Barack Obama, and I am not here to take that away. For the record, however, the savvy, well-spoken and, yes, elegant Speaker Nancy Pelosi navigated the political waves better than anyone else on the high, rough seas and brought her party and president home.
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America Has ‘Very Good Haters’ But What We Need Is Civility
Tweet Share on Facebook March 16, 2010 Comment (29)By Jamie Stiehm, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Too often, our public discourse becomes public "discoarse." Then the song of democracy gets discordant. Sometimes we as a society forget we are all in this thing together.
Talk radio--read: Rush Limbaugh--started a vicious trend 20 years ago that has spread to other forms of media, like cable television and the Internet.
As I write for the Thomas Jefferson Street blog, I ask the reader to please hold his fire--and it is almost always "his." In this space, the few liberals among us get quite a whacking from readers. Mean-spirited comments are all the rage, it seems sometimes. Just this once I'd like to hear from a few in a more gentlemanly manner.
To the rescue comes James Leach, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Leach is about halfway through a major civility initiative. He has plans to travel to all 50 states to speak about this civic virtue. Notice how close civility and civic are in Latin. The city, whether it's ancient Rome or modern Washington, works best when there is an agreed-upon way to disagree.
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Washington as ‘Our Town’: Dad’s Replacing Rangel
Tweet Share on Facebook March 5, 2010 Comment (94)By Jamie Stiehm, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
So there I was on the Wisconsin Avenue bus late Wednesday on just another ride home in the Northwest neighborhood. Nearby was a good-looking man about my age and I couldn't help hearing his conversation--conducted by cell phone, I might add. "Yeah, Dad is going to be chairman of the Ways and Means Committee," he said clearly enough for all to hear. This being Washington, that registered like political lightning. Wow, so the wily, likeable New York Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel was gone from the premium real estate on the House side of the Hill.
So who did this guy on the bus look like? Was he for real? Yes, he looked and sounded the part of a congressman's son. Turned out my private scoop was right: In another news cycle, Sander M. Levin, a Michigan Democrat, was appointed acting chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in the wake of ethics questions surrounding Rangel.
