NYC Letter: The Greats Of Political Whoredom -- Nancy Pelosi Redux

Day 1,195 of CHOPE

Just beginning a post about Nancy Pelosi is depressing. What will it be this time? Lying? Pulling phony numbers from her nether wink? Peddling a Republican Apocalypse? Damning from her high moral perch? Bragging on failure? Claiming nigh near theological authority as an "ardent, practicing" Catholic while perverting Church doctrine? Double-think? Gossip? Fairy tales? Self-dealing? Self-exculpation? Blaming the politically absent Mr. Bush as if it were 2006? Or just being stupid? Or playing you for stupid?

Well. Here she is again. [Pause.] Depressing. And we haven't even begun the post proper! [Struggles with child-proof cap. Two Zoloft.] Read on.

We begin Ms. Pelosi's hypocrisy cascade here.

PELOSI BASHES CATHOLICS:
"THEY HAVE THIS CONSCIENCE THING"

November 2, 2011 (LifeNews) - Pelosi is upset that the nation’s Catholic bishops are protesting a potential Obama administration decision forcing insurance companies to cover birth control, contraception and drugs that could cause abortions. They say certain religious groups may not be exempt from providing the insurance, which would violate their moral and religious views.

Pelosi says the position is akin to having hospitals "say to a woman, 'I'm sorry you could die' if you don’t get an abortion," she told the Washington Post.

Those who dispute that characterization "may not like the language," she said, "but the truth is what I said. I’m a devout Catholic and I honor my faith and love it ... but they have this conscience thing" that the Post said Pelosi insists put women at physical risk, although Catholic providers strongly disagree.

"Devout Catholic" Pelosi is annoyed to discover that Catholicism -- a religion she professes to practice and to have studied closely -- has "this conscience thing". As a blow-off line this is breathtakingly obtuse.

Pelosi also defended controversial remarks she made about a bill to prevent Obamacare from funding abortions, where she claimed Republicans "want women to die on the floor."

"For a moment, I want to get back to what was asked about the issue on the floor today that Mr. Hoyer address," Pelosi said. "He made a point and I want to emphasize it. Under this bill, when the Republicans vote for this bill today, they will be voting to say that women can die on the floor and health care providers do not have to intervene if this bill is passed. It’s just appalling."

She told the Post in a new interview, that she doesn’t think the assessment went to far.

"They would" let women die on the floor, she said. "They would! Again, whatever their intention is, this is the effect."

PELOSI DISMISSES CATHOLIC BISHOPS
AS 'LOBBYISTS'—FOR OPPOSING OBAMACARE REG
FORCING CATHOLICS TO ACT AGAINST FAITH
December 1, 2011 (CNS News)

There you have it. "Devout Catholic" Pelosi decries "lobbyist" bishops making the case for the free practice of religion -- and the consequences of its curtailment. Burdened with that "conscience thing" they cannot be relied on to think outside the Catholic box like "devout Catholic" Nancy. Catholics, pay heed! Take your lead from "devout" Nancy, not "lobbyist bishops".

Oh. Wait.

NOW PELOSI SUPPORTS BISHOPS 'MORAL CRITERIA'

April 19, 2012 (WaEx) - House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., invoked the "moral criteria" of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to attack the Republican budget -- an understandable move, except for her disregard for those same bishops during the contraception mandate fight.

"The US conference of Bishops says that the Republican budget doesn't meet their moral criteria," Pelosi said during her briefing today. ... "On Tuesday, the Republicans voted to deem and pass their budget -- the same budget that the bishops have said doesn't meet moral criteria," she said again, and then repeated, "'doesn't meet moral criteria.'"

"Devout Catholic" Pelosi magnanimously rehabilitates Catholic bishops to her political criteria. We wonder if the repetitions are for effect or if somewhere in her big brain there is a little cowering thought, "Whoa, Nancy! You trashed these guys only four months earlier!" But Nancy Pelosi's brain is a vast enterprise where lies and cautions rarely meet up.

Pelosi regards the bishops' tax policy as authoritative, but she recently disregarded them when these same bishops opposed the contraception mandate as a violation of religious liberty.

She accused an array of church leaders, including a priest representing the conference of Catholic bishops, of pushing an ideological agenda that disrespected women.

"I think that really showed their hand," Pelosi said during a House hearing on the mandate. "It wasn't about church and state, it was about an ideological point of view that flies in the face, again, of the respect that we need to have for women."

Nancy Pelosi is many things. "Devout Catholic" is not one of them.

CHOPE.

Depressing. Still the undisputed queen of political whoredom.