The Tracks of Your Tears

Oh, Jeez. Cue the world's tiniest violin: Pelosi Tears Up Over Health Care Rhetoric

For the first time anyone can remember, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi teared up at a press conference this morning in response to an off-beat question about the current state of political discourse.

Visibly struggling to retain her composure, Pelosi recalled a time in San Francisco when emotions ran out of control, obviously referring to the assassination of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk by an angry former supervisor Dan White on Nov. 27, 1978.

"We are a free country, and this balance between freedom and safety is one that we have to carefully balance," Pelosi began. Then out of nowhere, startling the reporters gathered at her weekly press conference, she almost instantly teared up as she recalled the unnamed events long ago in San Francisco.

Women in public life do themselves no favors when they start crying. It's a sign of becoming unmoored and unsteady at crucial moments. Remember Kathleen Blanco's teary press conference in the wake of Hurricane Katrina?

Pelosi's fears of a "Harvey Milk Assassination" atmosphere are pure petty politics at its best. Believe me, she would love it if the opponents of progressive health care reform were rioting in the streets and machine gunning earnest democrats who want to "help." A typical progressive's world-view is dependent on their belief that they are all that stands between us and the easy blandishments of an "American Hitler." They love that sort of melodrama, even as they ignore the dull reality that their opponents are sober-sided conservatives who don't want to turn American health care upside-down for the sake of the Left's dreams of endless entitlements. She has no respect for her opponents' positions, so she is frustrated that her proposals are intensely unpopular with a plurality of the voters. Hence the tears.

Governing a constitutional republic is hard, Madam Speaker. Show some respect for your opponents, and for the system, and try to get some work done.