During a telephone interview, Ms. Pelosi–speaking from a friend’s home in New York City–described her mother’s predicament:

She would retire right now, if the donors she has didn’t want her to stay so badly. They know she wants to leave, though. They think she’s destined for the wilderness. She has very few days left. She’s 71, she wants to have a life, she’s done. It’s obligation, that’s all I’m saying.

Pelosi’s revelation is significant, given that her mother pushed to serve as Minority Leader after the Democrats’ historic losses in the 2010 midterm elections, and that many Democrats–including President Barack Obama–are campaigning on the expectation that she will be restored as Speaker if they can retake the House in 2012.

Alexandra Pelosi, 41, is a television producer and documentarian who won multiple Emmy awards for her work on Journeys with George (2002), an HBO documentary on George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign. The film was widely hailed as fair in its depiction of a president not used to sympathetic media portrayals.

In speaking to Big Government, Pelosi–who was polite and friendly throughout–also criticized CNN anchor Anderson Cooper:

Look, you guys are journalists, so you do what you have to do. I could give you chapter and verse on what’s going on in the media–and I’m not talking about Andrew Breitbart, I’m talking about Anderson Cooper–so as long as you guys tell the truth, just write whatever you want, and feel free to call me anytime.

In a follow-up exchange text message, Pelosi elaborated on her remarks about Cooper:

I make television-i know about editing! I worked at NBC for 10 years+ 11 for 11 – I edit for a living. I just I know for a fact that 60 minutes and cnn have edited NP [Nancy Pelosi] out of context! XO, A

Minority Leader Pelosi’s departure would make room for her deputy and former rival, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), who currently serves as Minority Whip.

Hoyer is widely seen as more moderate than Pelosi. She opposed his election to the party leadership in 2006, choosing instead to back the late Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA), despite his ethical challenges.

UPDATE: This morning, Alexandra texted me:

Get your facts straight: I said she is destined for GREATNESS! Not wilderness. And that text was supposed to say HBO for 11. I have never talked to Nancy Pelosi about any of this.

Interestingly, Alexandra doesn’t challenge the crux of the story; that Pelosi would prefer to leave Congress and only remains out of a sense of obligation to her donors.

***

BETTENDORF, Iowa (AP) – Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry said Tuesday that if elected he would end lifetime appointments for federal judges and slash the pay for federal lawmakers, effectively turning Congress into a part-time institution.

In a speech laying out how he would “uproot and overhaul” Washington, the Texas governor suggested that his Washington outsider background—unlike some of his GOP rivals—would help him succeed at changing the city’s culture. Changing Washington also was one of President Barack Obama’s goals and he’s had no success on that front since taking office.

“Unique to the Republican field, I have never been an establishment figure, have never served in Congress or part of an administration and have never been a paid lobbyist,” Perry said. “My career has been that of a Washington outsider.”

Until he jumped into the presidential race in August, Perry spent his entire political career in his home state of Texas.

The plan Perry rolled out at a heating and cooling company in Iowa also calls for requiring a two-thirds vote in Congress for any tax increases, halting all proposed federal regulations and criminalizing insider trading by Washington lawmakers.

Perry includes the president in the call for a pay cut and said lawmakers’ pay would be halved again—or essentially slashed by three-fourths—if the federal budget isn’t balanced by 2020.

The president’s annual salary is $400,000. Members of Congress not in leadership positions earn $174,000 a year.

“We should cut the salary of the president of the United States in half until that budget is balanced,” he said.

With voting set to begin in Iowa in less than two months, Perry is looking to turn around his once high-flying campaign. He is no longer a top-tier candidate, largely because of disappointing debate performances, including an embarrassing blunder in front of his rivals last week when he struggled to name the three federal departments he says he’d dismantle if elected.

The plan Perry unveiled Tuesday lets him stress his outsider credentials at a time when large swaths of the public say they are fed up with Washington and its seeming inability to function. Several of Perry’s rivals either are or have been members of Congress, or have served in presidential administrations, including Obama’s.

“The issue this election is not whether Washington is broken, but how we go about fixing it,” said Perry. “There are two approaches and even my own party is split.”

Throughout his speech, Perry sought to distinguish himself from his Republican rivals while not mentioning them by name.

“There are some who want to tinker with the status quo, they want to work within the current system to achieve marginal change,” he said of his rivals. “Then there are those who believe Washington is too broken to be fixed by tinkering within the margins.”

The plan also helps Perry appeal to conservatives who deplore activist judges, tax increases and government regulations. He added to that by attacking the financial industry bailout. Taxpayers shouldn’t foot the bill for bad decisions by stockholders, he said.

Perry claims the proposal is far more aggressive than any of the other Republicans who are challenging him for the right to go up against President Barack Obama next November because of his promise to do away with lifetime tenure for federal judges.

He focused the speech on judges and turning Congress into a part-time institution. A constitutional amendment would be required to eliminate lifetime appointments for federal judges. They are allowed, under the Constitution, to hold office during “good behavior”—interpreted to mean for the rest of their lives, unless they voluntarily step down.

“Too many federal judges rule with immunity from the bench and those who legislate from the bench should not be entitled to lifetime abuse of their judicial authority,” Perry said.

Polls have shown that voters have little regard for Congress, a sentiment Perry played on by arguing for deep cuts in congressional budgets and limiting the time lawmakers spend in Washington.

“Congress is out of touch because congressmen are overpaid, overstaffed and away from home too much,” he said. “It’s time to create a part-time Congress where their pay is cut half, their office budgets are cut in half and their time in Washington is cut in half.”

In Washington, House Minority leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., questioned the seriousness of Perry’s proposal and suggested he was pandering to tea party supporters.

“Is this a serious proposal he is making for a country that has very high unemployment, whose budget deficit is larger than it has ever been in history, where we have two wars that we are confronting and trying to bring to a conclusion?” Hoyer said. “If this is what he thinks is pandering to the tea party, it is not in my opinion speaking to the issues that the American people feel are very, very critical to them.”

Perry said he was not surprised by Hoyer’s reaction.

“It’s not a surprise to me when I laid out this fundamental reform that I talk about and ask the American people to consider a part-time citizen Congress, that career politicians like Steny Hoyer don’t like my plan to overhaul Washington,” Perry told conservative radio host Sean Hannity. “They’re making a great living up there.”

The second-ranking House Democrat on Sunday joined the party leadership in urging Rep. Anthony Weiner to quit because of his sexting scandal, a request the New York lawmaker has sidestepped in favor of a temporary leave of absence.

The Republican Party chairman criticized Democratic leaders for not taking a more forceful stand earlier on the affair, which has overshadowed much of the legislative business on Capitol Hill over the past week.

Weiner has acknowledged exchanging messages and photos ranging from sexually suggestive to explicit with several women online, and the latest to surface appeared on the entertainment website TMZ.

The photos posted Sunday were purportedly taken in the House members’ gym and show a shirt-less Weiner with a towel around his waist and his hand on his crotch. TMZ said the photos were sent online to at least one woman.

Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 House Democrat, spoke of Weiner’s “bizarre and unacceptable behavior” in texting inappropriate pictures of himself to young women. Hoyer said it would be “extraordinarily difficult” for Weiner to continue to represent his constituents effectively.

Weiner announced Saturday that he was entering professional treatment at an undisclosed location and wanted a leave of absence from Congress. A statement from an aide did not say where he would receive treatment or what type was involved.

That announcement came right after House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the national party head, said Weiner must go.

Read the whole thing here.

While Congress continues to kick the budget and debt can down the road and passes continuing resolutions to thwart a government shutdown, the Democrat leadership has dropped several messages to the GOP leadership:

“They cannot agree with themselves,” said Hoyer. He called for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to distance himself from Tea Party conservatives and forge a compromise between centrist Republicans and Democrats.

Hoyer said Boehner should abandon the additional cuts conservatives muscled into the bill introduced by GOP leaders that would have cut $35 billion in spending this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. After an uproar from conservatives, GOP leaders rallied around a bill that would cut spending by $61 billion.

Of course he would say that.

This is not 1995 though and the game has changed, and frankly so have the rules.

The differences between 1995 and now is the fact that President Clinton used his veto power coupled with spot-on messaging:

On November 13, 1995, President Clinton vetoed a continuing resolution that would have kept the government running amid a budget impasse. The result was a partial shutdown. A few days later, he signed another continuing resolution providing funds for the government until mid-December. After that measure expired, he vetoed three appropriations bills, and another partial shutdown ensued. This one lasted until early January 1996.

Yes, Clinton called the GOP’s bluff and triggered a government shut down.  The blame supposedly fell at the Republican’s feet.  However, the GOP remained the majority party in the 1998 elections only losing five seats in the House, largely due to the fact that the GOP-led Congress passed popular legislation approval ratings remained consistent.  Furthermore, President Obama is signing the CRs–he has no option–as the Democrats control the Senate.  He couldn’t possibly risk the blame to lie with his party.

The Democrat’s political strategy, setup, and sting on the Republicans is as directed at the tea party as it is to fragmenting and alienating the GOP leadership with the freshmen members.  This attempt to weaken Boehner as a leader and cause voters to become disenfranchised with the GOP sets up the 2012 election.

The GOP must remember that every time a Republican has the fortitude to stand up and call out the Democrats and the left, the people are behind them.  They crave someone with that leadership quality and fearlessness.  And this is why there is no front-runner in the GOP race to the White House.

Speaker Boehner must lead and unify the Republicans, stay on message, and obey the will of the American people.  If he doesn’t, the GOP will suffer serious consequences and the mantra of “not only conservative, but Republican” will vanish–setting up third party races in 2012, GOP incumbent losses, and Democrat wins.  However, if Boehner stands firm there will be no way the MSM machine will be able to beat back the sentiments and will of the American people for the results will be self-evident.

Maryland has long been considered one of the bluest of blue states. But with anti-Democrat fever running red hot, that is rapidly changing. There are competitive races everywhere. Thirty-year incumbent House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is facing a stiff challenge from Republican Charles Lollar in Maryland’s 5^th District. In Maryland’s 3^rd, veteran Marine fighter pilot, Republican Jim Wilhelm, is challenging legacy Democratic Congressman John Sarbanes, son of longtime Senator Paul Sarbanes and former Republican Governor Bob Ehrlich is giving corrupt, pathologically dishonest Governor Martin O’Malley—the Boy Blunder—a run for his money.

But another race has flown completely under the radar up to now. Conservative businessman Frank Mirabile has mounted a powerful challenge to radical liberal 7^th District incumbent, Elijah Cummings. Maryland’s 7^th encompasses largely rural Howard County, part of suburban Baltimore County and western Baltimore City.

Cummings is black. His constituency is disproportionately black. But that is the only thing they share in common. Like most liberals, Cummings uses his fellow blacks to remain comfortably ensconced in his lucrative, cushy job. And he does nothing, I repeat, nothing to help them.

Enter Frank Mirabile. A hardworking family man who built a successful landscaping business, he is dedicated to returning government to its Constitutional roots and getting it off our backs and out of our pocketbooks. Mirabile has a deep grasp of both economics and the needs of the district, unlike Cummings who uses it like a vending machine.

Frank has also done something Cummings hasn’t done in years, if ever. He has walked through the district numerous times. Feedback from residents is stunning:

• We are tired of the whole racism bit. We aren’t buying it. If you have solutions let us hear them. Please!
• We are sick of all the methadone maintenance clinics in our neighborhoods, breeding grounds for crime, drug dealing and filth.
• Our neighborhoods are neglected, run down and dirty.
• Trades are not taught in schools anymore. Why not?
• Illegal immigrants are doing all the “shovel ready” jobs.
• Taxes are too high, even for those on welfare.
• Crime is everywhere.
• We are sick of Cummings—he’s a phony!

And this is my favorite:

• Our American Dream is NOT to be on welfare!

They are fed up! And who could blame them?

Coming from a blue collar background, Mirabile has more in common with people in the district than the elitist Cummings. During his walk throughs he has been welcomed with open arms. He offered to set up impromptu rallies within those neighborhoods and many have volunteered their property to host events.

This is a sea change which I don’t think Democrats are even aware of. And as I have argued for years, the only reason more African-Americans do not join the Republican Party is that no one asks them to. At a Republican Party Central Committee meeting in Baltimore earlier this year, we were visited by a black man running for Sheriff. He said blacks are dying for change and literally begged the Committee to get Republican candidates to visit the district.

Well, Frank has done just that and the results are stunning. He has made amazing inroads on a shoestring budget, like so many Tea Party candidates this year. Going into the final stretch however, Mirabile needs the kind of advertizing dollars that will put him over the top.

Recall also: Baltimore City is the home state of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Can you imagine what a victory here would mean? Cummings has a large campaign war chest. Do what you can to support Frank in these last critical days.

Cummings is a member of the far left Congressional Black Caucus and part of the crew that fraudulently tagged Tea Partiers as “racists” at the healthcare rally last March. That day, Speaker Pelosi also walked arrogantly through the crowd with her oversized gavel, and passed the healthcare bill against our will so that “you can find out what’s in it.”

Cummings has comfortably owned his seat for sixteen years, never having to do more than lift the occasional token finger at ribbon-cutting ceremonies and special events. He has literally done nothing for the district.

Traveling through the city, one is stunned by the post-apocalypse look of almost every neighborhood. Most blocks have at least one boarded up building, in many neighborhoods whole areas are boarded and abandoned. Trash and empty lots abound. There are a total of 15,000 abandoned buildings in the city, 10,000 of which are owned by the city itself.

According to FBI crime statistics, Baltimore has the fourth highest murder rate in the country, it is number four in aggravated assault, and fifth in violent crime overall. They don’t call it Charm City for nothing.

Maryland floats on federal dollars and you’d think it could manage some inner city improvements. But endless regulatory red tape prevents the revitalization of these areas that can only be circumvented by pay to play politics or public-private “partnerships” of the kind that forced the resignation of Mayor Sheila Dixon last year. Cummings is fine with all that—a poster boy for this entrenched, corrupt, self-serving political culture.

According to the Census Bureau, despite bloated city and state bureaucracies, the Baltimore City black unemployment rate is 13.2 percent, well above the national average, while white and Hispanic unemployment rates are 5.1 and 7.2 percent respectively. A mere 51 percent of the black population is in the labor force, compared with 61 percent for whites and 67 percent for Hispanics.

Inner city blacks in Maryland, as elsewhere, are furious about how their jobs are being stolen by illegal immigrants. You’d think Cummings would take the pulse of his constituents on that subject. Instead he has voted for the illegals on every single relevant piece of legislation before Congress (from OpenCongress.org):

HR 3722 Amendment 1011 To require hospitals to document illegal alien patients and deny service when they can be safely sent home: NO

HR 5441 Amendment 968 To support Minuteman Project and deny Mexican government information regarding their dispositions along the border: NO

HR 6061 Secure Fence Act To build a fence and place surveillance equipment on the Southern border to reduce illegal entry: NO

HR 6095 Immigration Law Enforcement Act To affirm state and local governments’ right to enforce immigration laws: NO

HR 6094 Community Protection Act To restore Homeland Security’s authority to detain dangerous aliens, to ensure the removal of deportable criminal aliens, and combat alien gang crime. NO

Cummings also flagrantly defies the core beliefs of his constituents: he supports gay marriage. They don’t. He supports partial birth abortion. They don’t.

Cummings has refused repeated offers to debate, so Frank challenges him on his Facebook page. Following is an exchange that took place last Sunday:

Cummings: Too many Marylanders have lost their homes due to foreclosure. Now we are finding that many foreclosures throughout the nation may have been initiated through fraudulent means. I have called on Governor O’Malley and Attorney General Gansler to create a 60-day moratorium on all foreclosures in Maryland, so we can get to the bottom of this. No family should lose their home because of fraud.

Mirabile: So tell me…after 14 years in office, Maryland being under democratic control…Why are Baltimore streets littered with 15,000 abandoned houses? Why are jobs leaving the city? Why cant’ you walk down the streets of West Baltimore with your family without feeling safe? Why have we abandoned trades in education?

What has been allowed to go on in the neighborhoods of the proud residents of West Baltimore is a crime!

After years and years of promises of empowerment with only a social services check being delivered, don’t you think it’s time for you, Congressman, to step down?

How can you say you are for family values when you voted for late term abortions? (Vote tally: Prohibit Partial-Birth/Late Term Abortion bill)

How can you say you are for family values when you voted for transportation of minors across state lines for abortion services without parental notification? (Vote tally: Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act)

Have you told the voters YOU VOTED YES to give yourself a raise in 2009 while millions of Americans lost their jobs?

Have you told the voters YOU VOTED YES for gay marriage?

Congressman Cummings your time has come to re-enter the private sector and learn what it’s like to earn a dollar by trust and not by a vote.

I ask you to step down and prove to the constituents of Congressional District 7 you are willing to live by the laws you impose upon us and walk the streets with your family.

One final note: I challenge you to come out of the shadows and debate the issues one on one. No canned questions, just an honest discussion on the problems the families and small businesses of Maryland face. You’ll be surprised how many families in the West side of Baltimore want opportunity not a hand out. Let’s meet and have this discussion for all to make up their minds.

Reading that, who would you want to represent you in the 7^th District? Cummings can only parrot the Reid, Pelosi, Obama script. His interest in his district only extends to the voting box. Watch this revealing video. Cummings concludes, “We can do better.”

He’s right. We can do better. Frank Mirabile is a real, conservative choice for Maryland’s 7^th District who wants to serve the people of that district, not the arm-twisting agenda of remote, globalist progressives. Let’s give MD-07 a real choice this year. Help Frank get elected.

Mirabile has the more conservative Howard and Baltimore Counties largely sown up and thus has focused his last efforts on the city. Now he has to double up on his message during these final critical days, and it is up to us to do all we can to help him out.

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Related Links:

TNL: What Republicans Should Have Done About Financial Regulation
Andy Xie: The Chinese Housing Bubble
Obama: “At a certain point, you’ve made enough money.”
Hoyer: Shared Sacrifices Will Solve Debt Crisis
TNL: What the Tea Party Movement is Really About

The University of Illinois Alumni Association recently awarded it’s “International Alumni Award for Exceptional Achievement” to the current President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa Delgado.  Since the University of Illinois is the premier university for the state of Illinois, let’s see the list of accomplishments President Correa can boast of while claiming this prestigious award:

• Transparency International listed Ecuador as one of the world’s most corrupt countries under Correa.
• He has seized numerous TV and Radio outlets in his country.
• He has jailed reporters critical of his government.
• Organzied crime has had a magnificient rise during his reign.
• He has rammed through constitutional changes to increase his power and extend his term of office.
• He was found to have FARC terrorists fund his campaigns.
• Documents found by Colombia show that he has actively worked with FARC terrorists. FARC has also been involved with kindnapping Americans.
• Ecuador has provided a safe haven for FARC terrorists to launch attacks on Columbia, an ally of the United States.
• Ecuador has ties to both Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and has increased ties to Iran.

You could see awarding an individual responsible for the above antics (and more) at, say, Berkeley, but in the midwest? Then again, this is the same university system that employs and granted tenure to Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers.

An interesting connection is that Loren Tayler, the President of the University of Illinois Alumni Association is the son-in-law of Congressman Steny Hoyer (D-MA), the Democratic House Majority Leader.

It’s not a stretch to suggest that there is liberal bias in academia. However, to award the leader of one of the world’s most corrupt countries, one that is waging an open war on the free press in his country, who is allied with Iran and openly aiding attacks against an American ally, who is sponsoring a terrorist group that has kidnapped Americans, defies logic.

At a time when the University of Illinois is facing severe budget cutbacks, perhaps its time Illinois taxpayers consider whether or not they wish to fund a University that honors people who are involved in attacking Americans.  This award is the kind of mind-boggling lunacy only possible at a big government university.