Nancy With the Running Mouth

So, Nancy Pelosi went on the floor of the House of Representatives last week to press for the House to do something about the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in the budget deal and used her status as House Democratic Leader to talk for a little while.  Well, maybe eight hours . . .  eight hours and seven minutes, to be exact. 

Yes, Nancy Pelosi talked for as long as people work in one day, earning her pay.  And I'm not going to ask for equal time by writing commentary on it that takes as long to read.  I am going to say this, though:  What Pelosi did was a stunt to show how vital and relevant she is.  It did nothing to ensure that DACA would be included in the budget deal (and did nothing to help the Democrats in the 2018 House elections).  House Speaker Paul Ryan said that Pelosi's 487-minute speech, the longest House speech ever, was impressive, but not impressive enough to include in the budget bill a provision on DACA that Trump won't support.  Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer belatedly realized this, which is why he agreed to a budget deal in the Senate that didn't include DACA after engineering a shutdown over DACA that only helped the Republicans in the polls.  People want DACA to be settled - but they also want the government to keep functioning while it gets settled.

Look.  The current DACA program expires on March 5.  Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has uncharacteristically made good on a promise and plans to open debate on DACA on the Senate floor this week.  Speaker Ryan has to start debate on DACA in the House soon.  Otherwise, deportations of young people to countries they're too young to remember living in start on March 6.  No one, not even Trump, wants that to happen.  Something has to give, and that would be the case even if Pelosi had not gone on and on and on and on in the well of the House.     

No, Nancy Pelosi did this to discourage Democrats form getting rid of here, not to encourage Democrats or Republicans to get DACA taken care of.  And she did this to discourage Ryan from getting too comfortable with the idea of being in a position of House leadership.

Not Paul.  Tim. 

Right, I gotta get back to the Winter Olympics . . .