Could the contempt for ordinary Americans and those less-fortunate be any clearer? "And if they were poor, and they were sleeping on my sidewalk, they'd be arrested for loitering": What a truly remarkable statement from the Speaker of the House. It makes you almost forget there was a time when Democrats stood up for the poor and disenfranchised: the Speaker sounds more like Barbara Bush than the top official in the People's House: "Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"

Yes, if they were simply "poor, and they were sleeping on my sidewalk, they'd be arrested for loitering", because that's how you deal with those people, isn't it? You have them arrested so the Beautiful People won't have to look at them, or God forbid, smell their appalling body odor.

And even better account can be found at the Washington Post (thanks to a commenter at Huffington for mentioning it):

"We have to make responsible decisions in the Congress that are not driven by the dissatisfaction of anybody who wants the war to end tomorrow," Pelosi told the gathering at the Sofitel, arranged by the Christian Science Monitor. Though crediting activists for their "passion," Pelosi called it "a waste of time" for them to target Democrats. "They are advocates," she said. "We are leaders."

Actually, Nancy, you're not really not doing much in the way of "leading" at all: what you're doing is obstructing the wishes of your party's base, angering your constituents, and breaking promises left and right. You're giving away the farm to BushCo: that's not leadership AT ALL.

You know who the real leaders are Nancy? It's those dirty fucking hippies "advocates" camped out on your sidewalk. It's the people like me who call your office every single day. It's the bloggers and netroots who are indeed targeting the most worthless of the Democrats for primaries. They're the leaders who are holding your feet to the fire and making a public example out of your treachery, and you don't like that one bit, do you? Because you know how the game works: lead, follow, or get out of the way. So give them some respect: it's not like YOU spent the summer in a ditch in Crawford Texas. It's not like YOU have children fighting in Iraq. It's not like YOU don't have any health insurance. It's not YOU who's facing foreclosure.

So if you're wondering why the Democrat Party (and I use that term deliberately) can't seem to keep any of its 2006 promises, if you're wondering why Karl Rove and Harriet Miers are walking free, if you're wondering why the war goes on with no end in sight (when anyone who's been paying attention knows Congress has the power of the purse), if you're wondering why the President's illegal spying shenanigans have been allowed to operate unimpeded, if you're wondering why the Democrat-controlled Congress is on the verge of legalizing those same illegal wiretapping shenanigans, if you're wondering why Congress is more interested in condemning a citizen's advocacy group than passing meaningful legislation that reins in President 28%, you really don't have to look much further than Nancy "I'm a LEADER" Pelosi.

You're a leader in name only Nancy: a more accurate description would be "roadblock".