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Coverage of the same event, 4 years removed, different party, same org.
article 1- Pelosi take over Jan 4th 2007
article 2- Boehner take over Jan 4th 2011
Democrats Take the Gavels in Congress
By DAVID STOUT
Published: January 4, 2007
(news page)
WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 Jubilant Democrats took the gavels in the Senate and House today for the first time in 12 years, pledging a new era in Congress and a new effort at bipartisan progress.
I accept this gavel in the spirit of partnership, not partisanship, said Representative Nancy Pelosi of California after her election as the first woman in the nations history to be Speaker of the House.
Ms. Pelosi, whose party has 233 of the 435 seats in the new House, said she looked forward to working with Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the new Republican minority leader, who said the gavel was on loan from the American people, and that Republicans and Democrats could disagree without being disagreeable to each other.
Ms. Pelosi invoked the memory of President Gerald R. Ford, who in his days as Republican House leader was one of the best-liked members in either party. Let us honor his memory, she said.
Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the new Senate majority leader, sounded a similar theme. With the opening of the 110th Congress and the beginning of new Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, its time to start moving America forward, he said. Guided by the spirit of bipartisanship, Democrats are ready to take this country in a new direction.
But Ms. Pelosi made it quite clear earlier that her party intends to flex its newly acquired muscle, as she presided over the swearing-in of the leadership of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, headed by Representative Kendrick Meek of Florida.
The Democrats are back, and the C.B.C. is in the lead, in the lead! Ms. Pelosi exulted. Throwing a dart at Republicans, she envisioned a new direction that is there for all of the people, not just the privileged few, a direction that builds and strengthens the middle class.
As Ms. Pelosi assumed power, her predecessor sat quietly at his desk. Representative J. Dennis Hastert, who turned 65 on Tuesday, is now just a Republican congressman from Illinois, out of the Speakers chair and out of the leadership.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/04/washington/04cnd-cong.html
#2-
Pomp, and Little Circumstance
No Attribution
Published: January 4, 2011
(op-ed page)
A theatrical production of unusual pomposity will open on Wednesday when Republicans assume control of the House for the 112th Congress. A rule will be passed requiring that every bill cite its basis in the Constitution. A bill will be introduced to repeal the health care law. On Thursday, the Constitution will be read aloud in the House chamber. And in one particularly self-important flourish, the new speaker, John Boehner, arranged to have his office staff sworn in on Tuesday by the chief justice of the United States.
Those who had hoped to see a glimpse of the much-advertised Republican plan to revive the economy and put Americans back to work will have to wait at least until party leaders finish their Beltway insider ritual of self-glorification. Then, they may find time for governing.
The empty gestures are officially intended to set a new tone in Washington, to demonstrate presumably to the Republicans Tea Party supporters that things are about to be done very differently. But it is far from clear what message is being sent by, for instance, reading aloud the nations foundational document. Is this group of Republicans really trying to suggest that they care more deeply about the Constitution than anyone else and will follow it more closely?
In any case, it is a presumptuous and self-righteous act, suggesting that they alone understand the true meaning of a text that the founders wisely left open to generations of reinterpretation. Certainly the Republican leadership is not trying to suggest that African-Americans still be counted as three-fifths of a person.
There is a similar air of vacuous fundamentalism in requiring that every bill cite the Constitutional power given to Congress to enact it. The new House leadership says this is necessary because the health care law and other measures that Republicans do not like have veered from the Constitution. But it is the judiciary that ultimately decides when a law is unconstitutional, not the transitory occupant of the speakers chair.
All of this, though, is simply eyewash the equivalent of a flag-draped background to a speech compared with the actual legislation the Republicans plan to pass. And though much of that has no possibility of being enacted, it does suggest the depth of the struggle to come. The bill tauntingly titled the Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act has nothing to do with increasing employment and will never reach the Senate floor, but shows that the leadership is willing to threaten the hard-fought access to health care for millions of the uninsured, just to make a political point.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/05/opinion/05wed1.html?_r=1&hp
article 1- Pelosi take over Jan 4th 2007
article 2- Boehner take over Jan 4th 2011
Democrats Take the Gavels in Congress
By DAVID STOUT
Published: January 4, 2007
(news page)
WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 Jubilant Democrats took the gavels in the Senate and House today for the first time in 12 years, pledging a new era in Congress and a new effort at bipartisan progress.
I accept this gavel in the spirit of partnership, not partisanship, said Representative Nancy Pelosi of California after her election as the first woman in the nations history to be Speaker of the House.
Ms. Pelosi, whose party has 233 of the 435 seats in the new House, said she looked forward to working with Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the new Republican minority leader, who said the gavel was on loan from the American people, and that Republicans and Democrats could disagree without being disagreeable to each other.
Ms. Pelosi invoked the memory of President Gerald R. Ford, who in his days as Republican House leader was one of the best-liked members in either party. Let us honor his memory, she said.
Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the new Senate majority leader, sounded a similar theme. With the opening of the 110th Congress and the beginning of new Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, its time to start moving America forward, he said. Guided by the spirit of bipartisanship, Democrats are ready to take this country in a new direction.
But Ms. Pelosi made it quite clear earlier that her party intends to flex its newly acquired muscle, as she presided over the swearing-in of the leadership of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, headed by Representative Kendrick Meek of Florida.
The Democrats are back, and the C.B.C. is in the lead, in the lead! Ms. Pelosi exulted. Throwing a dart at Republicans, she envisioned a new direction that is there for all of the people, not just the privileged few, a direction that builds and strengthens the middle class.
As Ms. Pelosi assumed power, her predecessor sat quietly at his desk. Representative J. Dennis Hastert, who turned 65 on Tuesday, is now just a Republican congressman from Illinois, out of the Speakers chair and out of the leadership.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/04/washington/04cnd-cong.html
#2-
Pomp, and Little Circumstance
No Attribution
Published: January 4, 2011
(op-ed page)
A theatrical production of unusual pomposity will open on Wednesday when Republicans assume control of the House for the 112th Congress. A rule will be passed requiring that every bill cite its basis in the Constitution. A bill will be introduced to repeal the health care law. On Thursday, the Constitution will be read aloud in the House chamber. And in one particularly self-important flourish, the new speaker, John Boehner, arranged to have his office staff sworn in on Tuesday by the chief justice of the United States.
Those who had hoped to see a glimpse of the much-advertised Republican plan to revive the economy and put Americans back to work will have to wait at least until party leaders finish their Beltway insider ritual of self-glorification. Then, they may find time for governing.
The empty gestures are officially intended to set a new tone in Washington, to demonstrate presumably to the Republicans Tea Party supporters that things are about to be done very differently. But it is far from clear what message is being sent by, for instance, reading aloud the nations foundational document. Is this group of Republicans really trying to suggest that they care more deeply about the Constitution than anyone else and will follow it more closely?
In any case, it is a presumptuous and self-righteous act, suggesting that they alone understand the true meaning of a text that the founders wisely left open to generations of reinterpretation. Certainly the Republican leadership is not trying to suggest that African-Americans still be counted as three-fifths of a person.
There is a similar air of vacuous fundamentalism in requiring that every bill cite the Constitutional power given to Congress to enact it. The new House leadership says this is necessary because the health care law and other measures that Republicans do not like have veered from the Constitution. But it is the judiciary that ultimately decides when a law is unconstitutional, not the transitory occupant of the speakers chair.
All of this, though, is simply eyewash the equivalent of a flag-draped background to a speech compared with the actual legislation the Republicans plan to pass. And though much of that has no possibility of being enacted, it does suggest the depth of the struggle to come. The bill tauntingly titled the Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act has nothing to do with increasing employment and will never reach the Senate floor, but shows that the leadership is willing to threaten the hard-fought access to health care for millions of the uninsured, just to make a political point.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/05/opinion/05wed1.html?_r=1&hp