“But still Achilles wept, Remembering his dear comrade”. 

Nancy Pelosi is worth approximately $170 million (conservatively). Her husband is not that good a businessman. Her annual salary as an elected representative is $223,500. You do the math.

“Show me a man that gets rich by being a politician, and I’ll show you a crook,” Harry Truman once said.

In the USA, with the takeover of the House of Representatives confirmed, which will occur on January 3, 2023, the long-time Speaker of the House, Pelosi finally officially stepped down the other day. She has been the leader of the House Democrats since 2003, Speaker between 2007-2011 and 2018-2022. She’s 82 years old: yet another member of the gerontocracy which has become such a feature of US Federal politics.

The first female Speaker, she leaves behind a legacy of ruthless partisanship, massive fundraising for her Party and the passage of a lot of big legislation in two brief, 4-year periods of power. You’d have to go back thirty years to find another Speaker – Republican Newt Gingrich – with such a track record. In fact she’ll likely take her place in history besides legendary Speakers like Joseph Gurney Cannon (R-1900s),  Sam Rayburn (D-1940-50’s) and Thomas “Tip” O’Neill (D-1980’s)

They even had a fancy celebration for her departure, with the unveiling of a portrait of set in 2007, which has already started to generate internet memes.

However she’s not quitting as a House Member, although that’s expected before the 2024 election, probably not until she’s teed up an acceptable successor for her fortress in San Francisco. Sluffing off the leadership apparently also means she no longer has to be polite, as this little outburst showed in response to a reporter’s question on the subject:

REPORTER: “Will you commit to serving your full two-year term for the people of San Francisco?”

PELOSI: “What is this? Don’t bother me with a question like that. Really. Really, OK? I said what I’m going to do. Those kind of questions are such a waste of my time.”

Wow. What a way to treat the MSM after they’ve slobbered all over you for years (aside from FoxNews). How dare you question the Queen. The fucking arrogance she shows: why it’s almost as if she thinks she doesn’t work for the American voters but the other way around – which frankly she probably does. Listening to the quiet laughter of other reporters at her back-handed dismissal you can see why she gets away with this stuff.

A Republican never would. Which brings me to the real topic of this post – the response of former Republican Speaker, John Boehner (2011-2015). Boehner will not go down as one of the great Speakers; in contrast to Pelosi he was Mr Bi-Partisanship until his party revolted against him in 2015 over his endless compromises and he stepped down. Not that Paul Ryan was much of an improvement, compromising even more to the Democrats over “Omnibus” spending bills so vast and so packed with Democrat goodies that Pelosi and Chuck Schumer (the Senate minority leader at the time) openly laughed at Ryan – and went right back to fighting him tooth-and-nail on his beloved policies he thought such Omnibus bills would clear the deck for.

Paraphrasing comedian George Carlin from decades ago: “they’re all part of the same club. And you ain’t in it.”

Boehner was worse than that in Pelosi’s little ceremony. Always known as a sentimental weeper, he once again turned on the waterworks as he talked about how amazing Pelosi supposedly is. You can check the link for it, but I wouldn’t unless you have a strong stomach. I’m not against men crying but I prefer it be over serious matters like death and loss rather than what Boehner is known for.

Grant in the Wilderness, after that first night, went to his tent, broke down and cried. Very hard. Some of the staff members said they’d never seen a man so unstrung. But he didn’t cry until the battle was over and he wasn’t crying when it began again next day.

Shelby Foote, The Civil War

The RedState writer at the link sums up my feelings about such modern displays pretty well:

I just don’t feel that way, though. Instead, I look at the duplicity and resent it. For the elites, there are no stakes. There are no consequences. Nothing actually matters because it’s one big cocktail party where a select few get their payoffs while you languish at their hands.

Why should I cry over and celebrate the retirement of someone who supports abortion until birth and viciously attacks those who don’t? Who has described Republican voters as dangerous extremists? Who has spent the country into oblivion, nuking future generations, while enriching herself to the tune of over $100 million?… There’s nothing to celebrate in that, and to ignore that record takes a suspension of disbelief I’m not willing to engage in.

The “Establishment” in all their glory, Reason 156,789 why Trump was selected by Republican voters in 2016, and looking at recent moves by GOP Senate leader McConnell to pass yet another Omnibus spending bill, it seems they think that with Trump almost put down they can go back to the old ways of doing things.

Then there’s the fact that the crying only goes one way.

Out of curiosity, I searched for articles on John Boehner’s portrait reveal, which happened back in 2019. I couldn’t find a single one from a major news outlet. For Pelosi’s portrait ceremony, though, there are literally hundreds of pieces praising her to the hilt. Democrats are to be cried over out of jubilation, Republicans are to be shunned out of disgust. Further, we are expected to witness that double standard and not question it.

Do you know what Boehner’s bipartisanship adds up to? Absolutely nothing. Even pre-Trump, Pelosi would have just as assuredly spit in his face than help him pass a Republican priority. Pelosi didn’t cry at Boehner’s portrait reveal because she, unlike so many in the GOP, understands the game. She’s ruthless, and her ruthlessness shouldn’t be rewarded with adulation from those she spent years trying to destroy.

Yet, here we are, with Boehner tearing up, gushing over the greatness of a woman who will never return the favor to her successor. Because again, nothing actually matters. That’s the dynamic that has left GOP voters so disillusioned, and rightfully so.

This sounds familiar:

She’s thrown away a House majority before, back in 2010. But guess what? Before she did, she changed the entire country with Obamacare. That was her exit bomb; that was the sacrifice she made. And now she’s back, Obamacare is still the law (because of the Republicans and the legacies), and the temptation is going to be to return to laughing at her when she loses again in 2022.