This morning I have a column in the Hill newspaper on my reaction to the disgraceful conduct of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and various Democratic members at the State of the Union address last night. As I tweeted during the address, her conduct tore up more than a speech, but decades of tradition and left any semblance of civility in tatters on the House floor.
Forty-four years ago, I walked on to the floor of the House of Representatives as a new Democratic 15-year-old page from Chicago. I stood and marveled at the beehive of activity on the floor in the People’s House. I can still remember that moment because it forged a bond and reverence that has never weakened for me. As a Democratic leadership page during the speakership of Tip O’Neill, I watched some of the most passionate and important debates of the generation from the Neutron Bomb to civil rights legislation to sweeping national park bills. The country was deeply divided, but both parties maintained the tradition of civility and decorum. I was struck how members, even in the heat of furious debates, would not attack each other by name and followed rigid principles of decorum. They understood that they were the custodians of this institution and bore a duty to strengthen and pass along those traditions to the next generation.
That is why I was (and remain) so offended by this display. I believe that President Trump himself is worthy of criticism for not shaking the hand of Pelosi. I also did not approve of aspects of his speech, including bestowing the Medal of Freedom on Rush Limbaugh in the gallery like a reality show surprise scene. There was much to object to in the address, but presidents often make comments that enrage or irritate speakers.
However, none of that excuses Pelosi. At that moment, she represents the House as an institution — both Republicans and Democrats. Instead, she decided to become little more than a partisan troll from an elevated position. The protests of the Democratic members also reached a new low for the House. Pelosi did not gavel out the protest. She seemed to join it.
It was the tradition of the House that a speaker must remain in stone-faced neutrality no matter what comes off that podium. The tradition ended last night with one of the more shameful and inglorious moments of the House in its history. Rather than wait until she left the floor, she decided to demonstrate against the President as part of the State of the Union and from the Speaker’s chair. That made it a statement not of Pelosi but of the House.
For those of us who truly love the House as an institution, it was one of the lowest moments to unfold on the floor. That is why I argue in the Hill that, if Pelosi does not apologize and agree to honor the principle of neutrality and civility at the State of the Union, she should resign as speaker.
As Speaker of the House for four State of the Unions by a President of the other party I am disgusted and insulted by the viciously partisan action of Nancy Pelosi tearing up the speech.She isn’t clever or cute her childishness insults our American traditions -should be censured. @newtgingrich
I agree with Turley but I wonder if the ship that he is taking about (the dignity of the House, and of political institutions in the U.S. generally – and one must of course be mindful of what can be concealed by “dignity”), has sailed, and if Trump had given Pelosi no choice but to descend into the gutter to a degree, not just by not shaking her hand but by being the blockheaded, reality-show oaf he is, cultivating neofascist violence and xenophobia, pandering to religious theocrats, proudly displaying his contempt of Congress, and seeking to circumvent any legal restraint on executive power, including the requirement of leaving office if he loses the election, if he can get away with it – albeit the Democrats make it easy for him to do this in all their stodgy, unprincipled yammering about Russia and collaboration with the Deep State (yes, there is a Deep State, sorry liberals). But then it occurs to me that it is not Pelosi who had no choice (she is a lot less competent than liberals think, and totally cynical) but the constitutional system and the values undergirding it, which have been undermined. In that sense, Pelosi’s act merely reflected where we are, darkly alluding to the future and what may be necessary to turn this sordid situation around. Turley’s lament is poignant, but it reflects a political maturity and personal decency that no longer exists among the so-called leadership at the top. Shit happens.
You said, “blockheaded, reality-show oaf he is, cultivating neofascist violence and xenophobia, pandering to religious theocrats, proudly displaying his contempt of Congress, and seeking to circumvent any legal restraint on executive power, including the requirement of leaving office if he loses the election, if he can get away with it – ”
Clearly, you are someone who has no dog in the fight, and who can be relied upon to provide cogent and intelligent commentary free of any political bias. NOT.
The big “tell” is the “cultivating neo-fascist violence” – because you artfully glide over the whole black-masked, nail-stuffed baseball bat Antifa crew.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Clearly, you are someone who has no dog in the fight,
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Are you saying that if someone doesn’t support your dog or the Democrat’s dog, they should just STFU and go away?
Tell Pelosi to save your partisan displays for the proper venue!
As if 3 years of total sabotage and one Russian hoax after another wasnt enough!
Yes, shit happens. Let me find some toilet paper for you. You need it after that round of logorhea you just gave us.
Wort, false. She was undignified and petulant. Poor example and precisely why there is no ‘bipartisanship” possible with this pack of scoundrels leading the Dem party at this time in history.
Fix your party or prepare for the consequences of looking like anti-American saboteurs and fools!
If you carefully view the exchange when Trump handed the speech to Pelosi and Pence at 2:37 in the C-span clip, he CLEARLY had already looked away and was turning around when she extended her hand.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?468549-1/2020-state-union-address
That was my impression, too. I wonder if Pelosi timed the gesture for when the Pesident was looking away. In other words just another political stunt.
Watched the video again and I think you are right. He did not shake the hand of the VP and he was turned away when Pelosi extended her hand. More childish stunts by Pelosi.
It’s been hard to be a Democrat. Democrat turnout in Iowa was down. Democrats figured out a way to hack their own elections there. Trump will likely be acquitted of impeachment on a bi-partisan vote later today. He delivered a rip roaring “partisan” SOTU which will be well received by his base and stoke their enthusiasm.
Tearing the speech up on TV is just a stunt to provoke some enthusiasm in a demoralized Democrat base.
My guess is Pelosi likely resigns after the election in November regardless of who wins the House or Presidency. The Four Stooges are now the de facto leaders of the party. They did not want her to be elected Speaker in ’18. Pelosi has tried to be a bridge between the decrepit, ossified, old school establishment Democrats and the extremist revolutionaries. But the extremist wing has all the energy. I think Pelosi’s days are numbered.
oh they need help for sure after they botched Iowa caucuses
I don’t know where you’ve been these past forty-four years, but the institution has debased itself without Nancy’s help. The mask of “civility” is in tatters, and the ugly face of politics is always on view. Schiff was the model of civility while trying to kill Trump, his mortal enemy, but it was still war. Outright war. So why hold Nancy to the memory of some higher standard of the past? Trump is winning through balls and defiance. Nancy showed both in her gesture. I’ve yet to see any of the Dem candidates do anything as powerful.
As childish as the RIP was, did anybody else notice how weird Pelosi acted during the speech. She was talking to herself, and OH, the look on her face when Trump mentioned the poor dead victims of illegal aliens who were turned loose by New York City and San Francisco. It was a look of sheer hatred for making her face the dead people, and responsibility in that.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeeky……Laura Ingraham said that at times she looked like she was reading the menu at the Cheesecake Factory……lol
The President personally thanked Professor Turley for one of his tweets:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1225046222123171841
He must be very proud. Maybe he should frame and put it on the wall with presidential retweets of anti-semites and conspiracy nuts.
The forgotten people of flyover love the great Donald J Trump!
He’s making America great again!
Always was great. Just reminded us. Like Sly Stallone, Ronald Reagan and even Rudy Giuliani did. We need that sometimes.
I agree – Nancy Pelosi first and foremost should apologize for making such a display of shredding the speech, and she should RESIGN as Speaker.
Not only is Pelosi exactly what Samantha Bee called Ivanka Trump, she also showed herself to be a true socialist. A capitalist would have sold the thing on ebAY.
I did this today. It seems appropriate.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EQBKjqZXkAAvkHj.jpg
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
What she should have done is simply not invite a President under an impeachment vote to deliver the SOTU in a speech to a joint session, and have Trump deliver it in writing like they did in the good old days.
It’s a joint session of Congress. The President of the Senate is Mike Pence and the President pro tempore is Charles Grassley.
This is a turd, it is the Speaker’s prerogative to invite the president. She held the invite last year prior to budget deal.
Your complaint about Rush Limbaugh’s award was tasteless. Did you not know he is a terminal patient?
Limbaugh himself has been for a generation a consequential figure in extending the range of public discussion. This appalled people like Louise Slaughter, who had as one of her side projects amendments to the enabling legislation of the Federal Communications Commission that would have forced him off the air. Modal opinion among older liberals has it that vigorous political opposition is ‘divisive’ and that the only permissible discussion is that wherein the poles are defined by employees of PBS and NPR. Of course, the younger leftoids are participants in a LARPing game wherein one set of participants riots and the other set of participants refuses to allow police and security to do their jobs.
Unlike Marian Wright Edelman, Limbaugh has made a positive contribution to the public square. If she gets one of these gewgaws, so should he.
And to think that some people really believe that Trump’s Impeachment wasn’t just a hate-based, partisan tantrum.
Trump is living rent free in Pelosi’s head.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
“living rent-free in Pelosi’s head”
I’m sure it’s unfurnished…….😎
LOL
I read the blog article and the comments and I’m mystified…
Apparently Pelosi tore something (a speech maybe?)
jinn:
At the end, she made a big deal of ripping the speech in two. Very kindergarten.
I’m talking about military strategy and diplomacy, not election strategy.
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OK thanks
Well at least she let him give the speech before she tore it out of his hands and ripped it up
mespo……”very kindergarten”. Please don’t insult 5 yr olds😊!! Finger painting is hard! It’s a science!
Next year for the SOTU, Congress would be well-advised to provide a nursey for toddlers and infants who might be attending.
What she tore was a history of commity in our nation by acting as badly as the screaming petulant children on the night of Trump’s election. She make a mockery of her office and the entire democrat party. She set in stone the world’s opinion of dems as spoiled tantrum-driven children for the last 3+ years.
They are total losers and increasingly play the part of unschooled children
“I also did not approve of aspects of his speech, including bestowing the Medal of Freedom on Rush Limbaugh in the gallery like a reality show surprise scene.”
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The man has Stage IV lung cancer and looks it. Depending on the cancer type and whether brain metastases has occurred, he may have sixty days left. Any delay likely rendered the award posthumous. Totally appropriate event in my view given the circumstances.
As terrible as Nancy’s tirade of paper was not acknowledging a dying man was infinitely worse. A pox on her and her faux Catholic house.
Mespo, do you have a spare hanky?
Rush is the guy who regularly described political opponents who had tried or were dying as “assuming room temperature”.
Very funny being lectured on decency by people who’s heroes are Rush L and Trump.
Rush is the guy who regularly described political opponents who had tried or were dying as “assuming room temperature”.
Who? And your objection to the phrase is just what?
The subject was respect for the dying and dead, a principle at odds with openly mocking those in that state on national radio. Rush deserves exactly the respect he dished out – none. I’ll leave the mocking to others with a similar lack of basic decency and humanity.
IOW, you don’t have an answer.
TIA:
He never does.
Like him or hate him, the POTUS has a right to bestow the Medal of Freedom on him. If I were bestowing the Medal of Freedom on someone who was dying, I’d make it a point to give it to him/her while they were still alive and in the best position health wise to receive it.
agreed
Rush has kept regular folks involved in the political system for DECADES who otherwise had no voice!
he’s a great American and deserved the honor
very moving!
Rush Limbaugh got a medal from him. Your entire career is now an utter sham.
I’m sure this made sense to you when you were typing it out. You shouldn’t do this while intoxicated.
Trump has never apologized for anything, anything at all – including the actions which led to his impeachment, or more than 16,000 lies as President, or his constant name calling and incivility on his twitter feed.
But Turley calls for Pelosi to apologize or resign for something something something lack of decorum. Because she is a woman, perhaps?
what a partisan and ill-informed statement. If there were anything criminal for Trump to have needed to apologize for then it surely would have been included in the articles of impeachment. There was nothing in them because there was no crime. Purely petulant behavior by pelosi, on the other hand needs an apology not only to all Americans, but to the duly elected President of Venezuela, who, by pelosi’s actions, was disrespected when she childishly and gleefully tore up that speech. What a disgrace that act was for the world to see.
show me any head of state who apologizes.
it’s a really foolish thing for any head of state to do, to apologize
it sends a message of weakness
this is ok in the family and among friends but nations are rivals and must be lead by the strong
That is a big problem with people like you, you believe in some mystical land that never was.
YNOT:
“That is a big problem with people like you, you believe in some mystical land that never was.”
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Oh no, it was and will be again. You are going to see a resurgence of traditional values and customs as well as a return to classic gender roles. (it’s happening now in Eastern Europe, the UK and Southern Europe). People aren’t happy in the brave, new world of the globalist Left. And misery is a powerful motivator.
You believe time changes nothing when I know it changes everything. “The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see. Ask any oculist.” A guy slighter brighter than you said that.
I love it when the Devil lets the mask slip.
Imagine if her dentures slipped too…
watching the way her mouth was moving around, a lot of us were waiting!!
Anonymous:
She sucked on them the whole speech to keep them in.
“little more than a partisan troll” – Turley says referring to Pelosi.
Doesn’t that describe the entirety of Trump’s political career? Doesn’t that describe the guy that was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, at a surprise ceremony Democrats were unwittingly attending?
MS:
“Doesn’t that describe the entirety of Trump’s political career? Doesn’t that describe the guy that was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, at a surprise ceremony Democrats were unwittingly attending?”
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Ah no and no. Why don’t you list your similar accomplishments and then we’ll compare. Start with your international trade accomplishments and your political offices held. Then tell us how many folks tune in to you on a weekly basis. The bar is 30 million.
That’s what it always comes down to with Zeus, how much are you worth. Hence the love for Putin and his oligarchs plus pseudo billionaire tRump, blinded by the glitter.
It’s always about the numbers YNOT. Learn the economics. Predict the future. Never fails. Ask the cratering Chinese and the surging America. Energy independence mean anything?
Are you familiar with the phrase “obviously argued in bad faith?”