Nancy Pelosi’s Day Job

District 8 Congressional candidate Cindy Sheehan.
Photo by Luke Thomas

By Cindy Sheehan

April 25, 2008

“I don’t even think about it much. You know, I have a day job.”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Cindy Sheehan’s candidacy, Larry King Live, April 24, 2008

I arrived home from Oakland where I had just been doing my day/night job and I turned on the TV in time to see the end of the Larry King interview with my Congressional opponent, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca). I sat on my couch, switched on the TV, and there she was. I watched for a few seconds while she blamed George Bush for taking the billions of dollars that she gives him every six months (like clockwork) to continue the explicitly illegal and infinitely immoral occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Then, out of the clear blue, Larry asked her about my candidacy. This was the first time, to my knowledge that she has been publicly confronted about me. I have never seen her without her mask on and last night was no exception. She talked about my candidacy reflecting the dissatisfaction of the American public with the war and when he asked her if she was surprised that I had chosen her to run against, she condescendingly said the above.

Editor’s Note: Here’s the full exchange between King and Pelosi:

KING: You mention Iraq. I guess the most famous anti-war activist, Cindy Sheehan, is going to run against you.

PELOSI: Yes, she certainly is.

KING: In the Democratic primary?

PELOSI: No, as an independent.

KING: She’s running as an independent. Would you debate her? How do you view that?

PELOSI: Well —

(CROSSTALK)

KING: I guess you share her views, don’t you?

PELOSI: Yes, well, God bless her. And I think it’s a reflection of the dissatisfaction that people have that we have not been able to end the war. But we were hoping that the president would pay more attention to the wishes of the American people, not turn a tin ear to them and a blind eye to what’s actually happening in Iraq, but God bless her for her advocacy.

Cindy Sheehan lost her son in Iraq. And so she has all of my sympathy, respect for her sacrifice that her family has made.

KING: Are you surprised she picked you to run against?

PELOSI: I don’t even think about it much. You know, I have a day job. We’re here trying to —

KING: OK.

PELOSI: You know, we just passed working with the president, our stimulus package, and May 2, the stimulus checks will start to go out. We’re working on it —

KING: Six hundred dollars or $1,200, depending on —

PELOSI: Depending, an average of $800, but 150 million families, starting May 1 and going on for a number of weeks, will be receiving these rebate checks. Millions of families who never received them before, families with children and the rest who didn’t reach a certain —

KING: You do have a day job.

PELOSI: I do have a day job.

KING: Thank you.

PELOSI: And I love it.

First of all, I hope she makes the most out of her “day job” for the next eight months or so, because the people of San Francisco are going to remove her and hire me in November. The current issue of San Francisco Magazine asks this compelling question on the cover: Has Speaker Pelosi been a failure? The article then pretty much allows the Speaker, in interview style, to come to her own conclusion that she has not been a failure, but if that were true, our troops would be out of Iraq, BushCo would be out of the White House and our country would not be in a devastating recession as we speak.

Nancy Pelosi counts as two of her major “accomplishments” things that most people consider weak at best and pandering at most. In her 100 hours agenda, she did get an increase in the Federal minimum wage to $7.25 by next summer. The New York Times called it a “major victory” for low-income workers. By next summer, with the weekly increase of $84.00, low-income workers may be able to fill their gas tanks and buy a bag of groceries. In 2003, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimated in a report called “2003 Poverty Guidelines” that a living wage for a family of four was $8.85 an hour. The “generous” increase in the minimum wage level doesn’t even bring workers up to 2003 poverty levels when the cost of living is becoming prohibitive for nearly everyone except the wealthy who profit from federal tax cuts to compensate for having to pay their employees a higher, but still near-slave wage.

In a current ad campaign, Nancy sits on a love-seat with Newt Gingrich yammering about working together to create a better ecology, however her Congress passed another, too-little/too-late bill to benefit corporations while harming our environment and future. By 2017 all autos sold in the US must have a minimum of 35 mile per gallon standard. This is her one piece of environmental legislation that is a success for automakers, but again, we the people suffer. Wars for oil are literally sucking the life out of our communities while the pollution is choking the air we breathe. I bet everyone who owns a car right now wishes they could get 35 miles per gallon, at least, and many do! The technology is there and if we must drive and it seems like most of us must, it’s time to give some kind of credit, maybe in the form of down payment assistance, or lower interest rates on loans for “gas guzzler” exchanges. BushCo did the same for people who wanted to buy SUVs…let’s have a reverse exchange and conserve our resources for once!

Ms. Pelosi’s most abject failure of her “day job” besides having an open Gucci purse (fund the war contrary to American opinion or common sense), policy is her disappointing and traitorous act of taking impeachment “off the table.”

On May 1st, 2006, long before she picked up the Speaker’s gavel, she made the pronouncement that would negatively impact history and give BushCo carte blanche to commit their high crimes and misdemeanors and crimes against humanity. Moreover, it was in 2002, as reported by the Washington Post (December 8, 2007) that in performance of her “day job” duties, Ms. Pelosi was briefed on torture and did not object to the inhumane and ineffectual path that our nation was stepping off on. She has not called for the restoration of habeas corpus, Kyoto or FISA and has not called for the repeal of the Patriot Act, Military Commissions Act, Protect America Act or the authorization for BushCo to unilaterally attack any country that they unilaterally perceive as a threat to, not Americans, but American interests abroad.

There are probably many “day jobs” that Nancy Pelosi qualifies for, but representing the people of San Francisco is not one of them. She opposes universal, single-payer health care and has promoted and voted for “free” trade agreements that are the major contributing factors to environmental degradation, job loss, or job insufficiency, and to the food riots happening all over the globe today: coming next to a community near you.

81% of Americans think this nation is on the wrong track and the 19% who don’t, belong to the country clubs and board rooms with people that have the last names of Pelosi, Bush and Cheney—and the rest see this as a “hallelujah” moment for the second coming of Jesus—Nancy Pelosi’s day job is to co-pilot the USA to destruction with George Bush as the pilot.

All I can say is, don’t spend your “economic stimulus” all in one place and while the “bread” of the Romanesque empire is hitting your mailbox you can entertain yourself with the circus of American Idol.

It’s time we hire new pilots for our ship of state: obviously the old ones have lost OUR course. I hope Nancy keeps underestimating and dismissing the people’s campaign to eject her out of the co-pilot seat. Maybe her mask will finally drop when our dose of reality kicks in!

Cindy Sheehan

Cindy Sheehan is the Nobel peace prize nominated mother of Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan who was killed in Sadr City, Iraq, April 4, 2004. She has been on an international quest for peace and accountability since then. She has written three books and numerous published articles. Cindy is currently running as a "Decline to State" independent candidate in the 8th District of California against Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.

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