Finally, Some Competence

The House just passed the "Democratic version" of the tax cut extension, with the support of only 3 Republicans, and the opposition of of 20 mostly Blue Dog and mostly lame duck Democrats.

I don't expect to make it through the Senate, but this is both good politics and good policy.

What is interesting is the parliamentary maneuver used to get it passed by a simple majority.

Normally, you need a ⅔ majority vote in the House to pass the bill without the possibility of a motion to recommit, basically a motion to amend and send back to the originating committee, and the Republicans always come up with stuff that will make weak kneed Democrats vote with them, typically having to do with sex offenders, or in this case, Wall Street tax cuts to make the Blue Dog/New Dem squishes tremble.

Well, Nancy Pelosi found a work around:

Brace yourself for some procedural jargon: Dems once believed they were faced with two mixed options for holding this vote. The first was to hold an up-or-down vote under the normal rules. But that would give Republicans the opportunity to introduce what's known as a motion to recommit -- a procedural right of the minority that would have allowed them to tack an extension of tax cuts for high-income earners on to the legislation.

The second option -- suspending the rules -- would have foreclosed on that right, but would have required a two-thirds majority of the House for passage: 290 votes, an impossible hurdle.

But Democrats figured out a way to avoid this. They're attaching their tax cut plan as an amendment to a separate bill [the Airport and Airway Extension Act, to wit]. That legislation already passed the House, and has just been returned from the Senate. The rules say it can't be recommitted. So the GOP's hands are tied.

You can blame Obama for the election debacle. You can blame Harry Reid. Don't blame Nancy Pelosi.

She knows what she has to do, and she does it.

Democrats were savaged because they were perceived as being unable to deliver, but Nancy Pelosi was not a part of that problem, she was just the victim.