by Norla M. Antinoro, Ph.D.
10 December 2006

On a few occasions in my life I have been in the position of having to eat my words. This time I am more than happy to say I was wrong about Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi [D-CA], soon to be Speaker of the House. In my previous blog I came down pretty hard on Rep. Pelosi for not ruling out the use of U.S. troops in the evacuation of U.S. citizens from Lebanon during the Israeli bombardment. I felt then, and still do, that bringing up the possible use of U.S. troops in yet another foreign land was unwise. But Ms. Pelosi was not suggesting that we occupy Lebanon, she was simply saying that in her opinion, the use of military resources could not, at that time, be ruled out.

Through her twenty years in Congress, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi has been unfailingly supportive of the people of this nation and of her district in California. She is, and has been consistently, what her detractors call a "hard core liberal". There are very few praises that sound more pleasant to my ears than that.

Ms. Pelosi has voted to protect the rights of women to make their own decisions. She voted against the use of military force in Iraq and Afghanistan. She voted against the Patriot Acts and against allowing them to become permanent. She supported the ERA. She voted against drilling in the Arctic Wildlife refuge [ANWR].

After reviewing her votes since 1999, I have found very few I instances where this left leaning Democrat would have voted differently than she did. She represents her constituents resolutely and staunchly supports the values they profess. Often, the more left leaning among her constituents will say that she is not liberal "enough" but in each case that she has been taken to task, when the issues have been examined her choice has made sense.

Now she is under attack from the right for being too liberal and from the left for not pushing for impeachment of the President. As soon to be Speaker of the House of Representatives, Congresswoman Pelosi will stand third in line to the presidency. She is a sane woman and so cannot support the idea of having Dick Cheney as our president. That means that both Bush and Cheney would have to go and that would put Pelosi herself in line for the Whitehouse unless other measures are taken. It would not be appropriate for Pelosi to spear head a move for impeachment of the president and vice president. It would represent a clear conflict of interests on her part.

She must stand neutral in this and allow others to carry the banner for impeachment.

In my view, the only reasonable solution is the Nixon scenario. The vice president must be indicted and replaced as was Spiro Agnew. Then, and only then, do we dare impeach the president. We cannot risk having Dick Cheney in the catbird seat even for a minute. If he were a sane, humane, and rational man, he would still be too ill to be president. As it stands, he is not sane, not humane, and in no way is he someone we can afford to have in the White House for more than meetings. We also do not want Cheney in place to cast any deciding votes during Bush's impeachment. He obviously is not objective in any sense and if he votes, it would be a given that he would vote pro Bush. So the first step is to take out the vice president. Once he has been safely replaced, we can go after the president for his high crimes and misdemeanors.

Once again Congresswoman Pelosi has made the sensible decision. Others must carry the torch for impeachment. It would not be moral for her to do so as Speaker of the House.

For my previous attack on Ms. Pelosi, I stand corrected. While the use of military resources was not indicated in Lebanon, that comment alone was not reason enough to vilify this long standing supporter of the people of this nation. She has, in her role as Congresswoman for California, represented her constituents well. As Speaker of the House she will be representing all of America and we can look forward to able and humane representation as she fills that role as well. Thank you for years of hard, often unappreciated work, Madame Speaker. And Welcome to your place in history.