This comment is incorrect on its face, though it addresses something more broad.

There is _no_ obligation of anyone else to offer or present an alternative to what the Democrats are doing. There is _no_ need or obligation of Washington to do _anything_, on any issue, at all, necessarily.
If what the Democrats are seeking is bad, and is wrong, it's correct to oppose it. Issue closed.

Now for the Republicans (and US conservatism, the default home for non-liberals who necessarily aren't truly conservative) to be viable, they must be a true alternative to the Dems and liberals. But often they are not. The GOP's principal reason for failure lately is that they've been too much like the Dems, notably in the fiscal area. (It's not a winning prospect for conservatism to become, and become _known_as_, a true and attractive alternative to liberalism, especially with a liberal media and a large population bought by entitlements and other government “goodness.”)

I (who grew up in the Bay Area) left California for the rest of the USA years ago and have been in Michigan(where I currently am) and through Ohio, and yes, you're right, left-Dems like Pelosi alienate many of the Dems in older Blue states like these as well as people elsewhere (all but other left-Dems and those even farther left who don't accuse her and the Dems of being centrist or conservative), and it's not simply due to the more idiotic environmentalist stances of those people that are deliberately destructive to the auto industry. (So don't anyone bother with that pathetic argument.)

The climate legislation alone, affecting everyone, not just auto industry employees, has so much of the public here concerned, even more than any dumb state or regional initiatives arbitrarily demanding new, unavailable-or-too-expensive alternative electricity generation sources in place of cheap coal or of nuclear power.

(A striking coincidence among Pelosi and the other silly lib-Dems in Washington is that they rush to pass harmful legislation that increases costs to people at this time, with energy as well as health care and other entitlements, during a recession for which they've claimed earlier authority to spend wildly in the name of “stimulus” needs.)

Pelosi is held in lower esteem than Obama, and rightly. The left-Dems in Congress are the worst that Washington threatens and presents to us, and we have a record already this year that confirms this.

And Pelosi says that favored “targets” have more to “contribute” — is the following surprising at all?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar…

if you feel the GOP is neither socially libertarian nor fiscally conservative why do you think I'm really a Republican?</blockqiote>

When people describe themselves as Fiscally Conservative, they can generally be relied upon to hold their noses and vote for the Republican candidate assuming that he hasn't been caught with a dead girl or live boy.

The Republican party is fiscally conservative only when it's out of power and unable to direct money to their contributors (See Bush II, Bush I and Reagan administrations).

Unfortunately the sane people in that party let the whack-jobs take it over.

I don't understand DQ, if you feel the GOP is neither socially libertarian nor fiscally conservative why do you think I'm really a Republican? I actually agree with you that that extremists have taken over the GOP.

If the current GOP is socially libertarian, Don Quijote, I'm sure that is news to a lot of people.

Or Fiscally Conservative…

Unfortunately the sane people in that party let the whack-jobs take it over.

I am socially libertarian/fiscally conservative,

So basically you are a Republican who lacks the intestinal fortitude required to call himself one.

I'd better print out the actual quote so as least I'll know what was truly said.

Just a bit of humor.

What she actually said was “…I can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!”

Personally I think she's low hanging fruit for the Republicans to target and keep their dispirited troops fired up over, and that carries over to the general population. I also think in the current Congress there's more good legislation for the people and for the country than was seen under the recent GOP-controlled, anti-environment, pro-wealthy congressional sessions.

But I also think the Dems are guilty of doing the same to the GOP majority leader when the GOP has the keys to the House.

Here's a link to all the legislation that the 111th Congress has passed that has either been signed into law or pending: Legislation of the 111th Congress

I'd never actually looked into it this deeply before and must say that I was surprised, educated, and (considering my political leanings) both impressed and pleased.

It doesn't look at all like the talking points (both left and right) that we're all used to. Take a look if you'd like and then I'd like to hear what you have to say.

With that in mind I think Pelosi is consistently irresponsible when it comes to spending, and I would include the stimulus package, the budget and the health care reform bill in that. And yes the GOP was also fiscally irresponsible.

DaGoat wrote: “On the other hand her actual policies are pretty bad, but you have to give her points for sincerity.”

I hear this (“the her actual policies are pretty bad” part) from Republicans over and over again but they never give examples of the “actual policies” they think are bad.

Would you please specify which of her policies you had in mind when you wrote this comment.

On the other hand her actual policies are pretty bad, but you have to give her points for sincerity.

It wasn't in the Politico link and I don't remember seeing it before.