Lying Isn't Limited To Sarah Huckabee Sanders

In an article in the Guardian titled, Nancy Pelosi shows no restraint in disparaging young progressive women, Arwa Mahdawi says:

There seems to be no rule about not insulting Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from abroad, for example. On Monday, Pelosi told an audience at the London School of Economics that a “glass of water” could have won a seat in Ocasio-Cortez’s “solidly Democratic” district. Which rather glosses over the fact that 28-year-old Ocasio-Cortez defeated Joe Crowley, a 10-term incumbent, in the primaries. And completely misses the point that Ocasio-Cortez was elected because people are desperate for real change, not more establishment centrists like Crowley. (Who, by the way, then went off to join a corporate lobbying firm that reps clients from the fossil fuel industry.)

Mahdawi links to a piece in Newsweek which gives fuller quotes as to what Nancy Pelosi said which show, if she was insulting Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in her comment, she was insulting herself, as well.  And, of course Mahdawi seems to have missed that Nancy Pelosi praised AOC in the same comment.  

“When we won this election, it wasn't in districts like mine or Alexandria's. And she's a wonderful member of Congress, I think all of our colleagues will attest,” Pelosi, a California Democrat, told an audience Monday night at a London School of Economics event during a U.K. visit.

“But those are districts that are solidly Democratic. This glass of water would win with a D next to its name in those districts,” she said, picking up the water at her table.

“And not to diminish the exuberance, and the personality, and the rest of Alexandria and the other members...but the 43 districts—we won 43, net gain of 40—were right down the middle. mainstream, hold-the-center victories.

I would bet you that when she heard that, as I'm sure she must have, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would recognize the truth of what Nancy Pelosi said but a New York lefty writing for the Guardian, not only didn't understand what was said, she translated it into exactly what it wasn't.  Or, rather, didn't figure she'd get an article out of pointing that out.  That is as common a practice on the play-left of the kind that never wins more than a seat in a legislature or municipal council here and there or, more rarely, a House seat in a safe district in a few cities in the United States but never wins a majority that could put a Democrat in the Speakership or wins a Democratic election. 

More aptly, perhaps, Arwa Mahdawi critisized what has been called the tepid response of Nancy Pelosi to Trump whipping up the very real potential of an assassin trying to murder Congresswoman Ilhan Omar:

Pelosi also doesn’t seem to find it necessary to treat Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar with much respect. She has made it abundantly clear that she sees Omar as a nuisance to be dealt with, rather than a colleague to be defended. When Trump recently tweeted a racist video dishonestly accusing Omar of minimizing 9/11, the likes of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders jumped to Omar’s defence. Pelosi’s reaction, meanwhile, was to not mention Omar’s name and tweet a thinly veiled jab about the memory of 9/11 being sacred ground.

What she is refering to was said in a tweet:

Nancy Pelosi
@SpeakerPelosi
 The memory of 9/11 is sacred ground, and any discussion of it must be done with reverence.  The President shouldn’t use the painful images of 9/11 for a political attack.

Which is probably a good example that Twitter is a lousy place to address points like this in.  I will grant that that, by itself is not adequate, though to pretend that is the extent of Nancy Pelosi's response is as dishonest as Mahdawi's use of what she said about House members from atypically liberal districts.  

I would point out that Nancy Pelosi's job is considerably different from Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren's, Nancy Pelosi's first and formost job after passing legislation in the House is tryping to protect and expand the Democratic majority in the House and not to have the Democratic caucus in the House become a political issue used by Republican-fascists, Greens (to repeat myself) the play-left (including those already mentioned in the second) and others to put the House in Republican-fascist hands, keep the Presidency and the Senate in those hands.  Her responsibilities are to the whole country as well as to individual members.  Ilhan Omar has been used in the media to try to do to Democrats in the United States what the media and Brit fascists have done to Labour into Britain, paint it as antisemtic to prevent Labour forming the next government.   Apparently The Guardian is joining FOX and RT and Sinclare in doing that.   Nancy Pelosi is certainly aware of that.   Politics isn't always a matter of telling the whole truth every time.  No one does that.  I certainly couldn't do Nancy Pelosi's job, I know her critics couldn't, especially those on the play-left side of media. 

I strongly suspect that I'm farther to the left than the Guardian Writer, I am certainly farther to the left than any lefty who doesn't realize there is nothing, nothing at all more radical than winning elections, holding seats MAKING AND IMPLIMENTING LAWS THAT MAKE LIFE BETTER.  That is something that many on the play-left not only don't get, imagining their imaginary pie-in-some-never-to-come-sky is more radical than reality, but actively work to prevent.  There is no group of those more prone to treating their imaginary ideas  above real reality than those who write and babble for a living.  Especiallly those from elite educational backgrounds from places like Oxford.