Pirate's Cove

Queen Nancy is flexing a few muscles against President Neophyte

Nancy Pelosi repeatedly stood to applaud Barack Obama when he addressed a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. But in the days since, the speaker of the House has been standing up for herself —distancing herself from the president on Iraq, on tax cuts and on the prosecution of former Bush administration officials.

Pelosi’s aides say the speaker was comfortable playing the role of Obama’s shield during the stimulus fight—Republicans teed off on her rather than on the immensely popular new president—and that she remains strongly supportive of the administration on health care, energy and education reform.

But on Iraq and other high-profile issues that matter to her, aides say Pelosi has no intention of holding her tongue when she thinks Obama is wrong.

And she’s not alone.

While Newt Gingrich complained that Tuesday’s night unofficial State of the Union looked like a “Democratic pep rally,” the aftermath has looked more like a sibling rivalry.

On Wednesday morning, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.)—the longest-serving member of the Senate—accused Obama of trying to steal power from Congress by appointing White House “czars” to handle issues that would otherwise be handled by departments subject to congressional oversight.

On Wednesday night, Pelosi made it clear to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that she wasn’t happy with Obama’s plan to leave 50,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and that, unlike Obama, she “absolutely” favors criminal prosecutions for any Bush administration officials involved in torture or other excesses in the fight against terrorism.

On Thursday, Pelosi said she’d move “faster” than Obama is to roll back Bush-era tax cuts. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman Chuck Schumer joined Pelosi’s critique of Obama’s plan to leave. Reid urged Obama not to push too hard to eliminate congressional earmarks. And Democratic Rep. Gene Taylor of Mississippi took a shot at Obama’s budget, saying “change is not running up even bigger deficits that George Bush did.”

How soon till Barry realizes that his current attempt to appear middle of the road (snicker) is running smack into Pelosi and Reid’s need to get a far left agenda through Congress, and they do not really care if the public knows or not?

I still say that Congress will introduce legislation to do away with the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts early this year. I guess we will see.