November 14, 2014

The Nancy Pelosi possibilities: lying, suffering from serious memory loss, or a facade whose power is exercised by unelected others.

"House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that, not only did Jonathan Gruber not play a significant role in drafting Obamacare, but that she doesn't even 'know who he is'":



You have to watch the video. There's a moment at 0:13 to 0:15 where her lips move and no sound emerges that is quite strange, revealing (perhaps) that she's frightened to find herself in the middle of this statement as if she's lost in a mental maze and wondering where's the exit. At 0:21, we see her 5 years ago, in happier times. She does seem unforthcoming there too, and it's quite possible that she had no idea who Jonathan Gruber was even when she was dropping his name as if it proved that the economics of Obamacare had been carefully worked out.

ADDED: A sign of the times: Lefty website FireDogLake attacks: "Trying to pretend Gruber had no part in crafting Obamacare or that you have never heard of him despite considerable evidence to the contrary does sound like someone who is relying on a lack of transparency and the stupidity of the American voter – doesn’t it?"

91 comments:

The Drill SGT said...

Her mouth moves, she's an experienced politician, she's a Democrat, of course she's lying. That's what they do...

FleetUSA said...

Demented. But we already knew that.

MathMom said...

She has a word-finding deficit under the best of circumstances, and is becoming less fluent over time.

She is also unaccustomed to being caught out on her lies.

This combination of being a slow thinker and having to think quickly on her feet is entertaining to watch.

I wondered once if she was always such a plodding thinker. I went searching for video from years ago. She used to be quite nimble. It's sad to watch a person lose their mental faculties as they age, but she is such a lying sack of shit that it's actually schadenfreudelicious in her case.

Bobber Fleck said...

Lying successfully requires a sharp memory in order to keep your story straight.

In her prime, Nancy was a very good liar. In my estimation she now shows signs of advancing senility. That's why she botches lies like this one.

Of course, she may simply be used to a compliant media that provides cover for her and helps her spin her narrative.

rehajm said...

Parse the statement- He didn't help write our bill.

He didn't personally put the crayon to the construction paper. Using Clinton rules, no foul.

tim in vermont said...

Howard Dean's line is that Gruber "likes to think he is an architect of Obamacare."

rehajm said...

Steaming with rage can cause you to lose your place for a moment.

Hagar said...

All that power went to her head, and losing it drove her around the bend.

Today she makes about as much sense as Blabbermouth Schultz, but she is a lot more dangerous since she is still Minority Leader.

David said...

Maybe she could head the FBI if the Democrats get back in power.

Ann Althouse said...

"Her mouth moves, she's an experienced politician, she's a Democrat, of course she's lying. That's what they do..."

Maybe that's what she was doing in those 2 seconds when her mouth was moving and no sound came out: trying to disprove that old saying.

B said...

Lying is a young person's game, Nancy. Time to leave the field.

Psota said...

She IS lying.

She IS suffering from serious mental decline ( so is Harry Reid. I take no joy in positing these things out)

She IS a front for unseen forces behind the scenes

CStanley said...

The lips moving without sound could be vocal cord dysfunction from all the Botox.

pm317 said...

She looks and talks like she is scared. Get all these old farts out of there.

MadisonMan said...

She is 74. (My grandmother died at that age -- she was old -- in the early 1970s).

One wonders how many small strokes Ms. Pelosi has suffered.

Herb said...

oh yeah because she didnt have a part in that? You have to pass it to find out what's in it.

Deep State Reformer said...

I would go with lying. That's the politician's default setting, whatever age or party.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Nancy Pelosi - Harry Reid - Barack Obama. What a bunch of losers the Democrats have given us.

virgil xenophon said...

With Nancy baby lying is the automatic reflexive default mode--and why should it not be, aided and abetted in spin-control/cover-up as she is by the MSM?

SomeoneHasToSayIt said...

The Nancy Pelosi possibilities: lying,

Yes.

. . . suffering from serious memory loss,

Yes.

. . . or

Why the 'or'?

. . . a facade whose power is exercised by unelected others."

Yes.

CStanley said...

Haha, I love the update- by denying she knows him, she proves that she does. It's like a political Chinese finger trap.

Hagar said...

She is frightened.
This is not how it was supposed to end.

mccullough said...

Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying

Unknown said...

"Nancy Pelosi - Harry Reid - Barack Obama. What a bunch of losers the Democrats have given us."

Why leave out Wasserman? Because she just talks like a Dem and hasn't lead to a comparable level of incompetence?

Virgil Hilts said...

She wasn't lying. She was Grubering.

Wince said...

...comfortably numb.

rehajm said...

She is 74.

Her Zeke expiration date is nigh, and she hasn't been properly handled and stored during her lifespan.

Curious George said...

Liar, of course. She knows who he is.

What a nasty despicable person. Even the lefties are afraid of her.

Larry J said...

She's angry. She's angry for losing power which makes it harder to steer sweetheart deals to her cronies and family. She's angry at being called out on her lies. That hasn't happened before. She's angry that other Democrats want to hold her accountable for them losing power and may vote for someone else to take her leadership position.

Perhaps we've discovered the toxic lifetime dosage for Botox.

Henry said...

Everything Gruber admitted is what anyone who observed the process already knew: the costs of the bill were hidden, its negative impacts denied, and its passage achieved only by gamesmanship of the lowest order.

If Gruber didn't exist it would still be necessary to uninvent him.

wendybar said...

hahahahaha....What goes around comes around, and old Nancy is getting her just due....Remember how she laughingly walked with her giant gavel with her Democratic brevin through the protesters of this rotten lying piece of legislation that they rammed through!! Oh how funny that was!!!! NOT!! But the lies are catching up with them!!

Original Mike said...

Wait! Did someone other than Fox out her? Because if it only happened on Fox, it didn't happen.

Curious George said...

"Larry J said...
She's angry at being called out on her lies. That hasn't happened before. "

Not much, but it has. Remember when she tried to hang the CIA out to dry on waterboarding...they let it be known that she had been briefed on it prior and of course she had said nothing. She had 3-4 different versions of denial...it was quite humorous to see her twist in the wind. Everyone knew she was lying. She knew everyone knew she was lying. She didn't care.

Watch it, very similar to this latest presser

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7Nss8Kc-LM


Democrats have no rules, no morals, nothing.


exhelodrvr1 said...

Unknown,
Yes, Wassermann definitely belongs in the same category, as does Biden. Not sure if she would make the Mt. Rushmore of Democratic losers, though. I do think that Biden has a shot at that, although he hasn't really had that much influence. Hillary probably belongs there ahead of him.

Rocketeer said...

She's lying, and it gets harder to do effectively as you get older.

That's another reason why the last election was so devastating to Democrats: their most powerful liars are all OLD now, and their potential crop of young, fresh liars have been relegated to the hinterlands. The viciousness of the cycle for Dems will become even worse because their oldsters' lies will become more and more guileless and apparent, increasing the possibility of future defeats.

Martha said...

MathMom's word expresses precisely what I felt watching Pelosi's doddering confusion as she dissembles:

schadenfreudelicious

SteveM said...

Occam's razor: She's lying and fully expects, with the good reason, that the media will not call her out on her lies.

Matt Sablan said...

She probably just thinks voters are stupid, like her good friend Gruber.

gerry said...

There's a PBS Frontline documentary about Gruber, Obama, his minions, and their heroic struggle to get Obamacare passed.

It just keeps getting better.

H said...

"A facade whose power is exercised by unelected" staff members. That is insightful, and that is not in any way sarcastic.

I have long favored term limits; but I have to say I'm a little worried that term limits would increase the number of elected officials who are just puppets for their staffs.

Gusty Winds said...

Her lips move, but we can't hear what she's sayin'...

We have become, comfortably numb...

Gahrie said...

Wait! Did someone other than Fox out her? Because if it only happened on Fox, it didn't happen.

Exactly. No one else is covering Gruber's comments, so effectively they didn't happen. Pelosi knows this, and also knows the media will cover for her too. So she doesn't even bother to lie well, its simply not necessary.

Gahrie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
RecChief said...

I know politicians have big balls, even the women. They have to, in order to get out in front of people all the time like that. But really, that's amazingly brazen of her to claim she didn't even know him.

Offstage, Jay Carney was heard saying "I know 3 Jon Grubers"

Apparently, Obama isn't the only one who believes his or her own bullshit.

jr565 said...

They had to pass it not know who the architect of the bill was.

jr565 said...

Dem operative: "What is this $400,000 check for Gruber for?"
Nancy Pelosi: makes silent noises with mouth

jr565 said...

Lets assume that she doesn't know who Gruber is. Think of how pols just throw money into programs. They give people 400,000 and have no idea. It's a rounding error. I should have gotten a 400,00 check and said I was an architect of Obamacare.

Unknown said...

The comments on FireDogLake are well worth reading, too. Much more vicious than the article itself.

chillblaine said...

She should retire, because she will never be Speaker again. Add Maxine Waters, Dingell and Conyers to the too-old-not-young list, too. They won't be majority party for the rest of their lives. If they really cared about the future of their party and not just power, they would just quit.

Mrs Whatsit said...

Look, this is not new. This is the same person who said that unemployment insurance creates jobs, and that was quite a few years ago. Also, that we had to pass Obamacare to find out what was in it, and of course a long string of other gems. There may have been a functioning brain in there at one time, but no longer.

Original Mike said...

"This is the same person who said that unemployment insurance creates jobs,"

That one wasn't a mis-speak. It was the party line. And note that here too, the assumption is the public is stupid.

Curious George said...

garage, Penguin, ARM, and the stupid Mark 0-3 on Gruber posts.

Again, my shocked face :-0

traditionalguy said...

So many face lifts and botox injections will stretch out memory.

She said it all when she told the young Dems that , " ...I knows where the money is found."

Pelosi is from the Clinton era when the Chi-Coms were buying off the Dems long before Soros became their godfather.

JR said...

I have another explanation, hard though it may be to believe. I suspect some of these senior pols don't personally use the internet much, if it all. They have assistants do it. They therefore aren't conscious that in the age of Google and Youtube you can't get away with changing your story like you used to.

mezzrow said...

as for myself, here's what I get out of this.

"Be careful what you wish for"

They baked this cake, and now they get to eat it along with the rest of us.

It won't be pretty.

Anonymous said...

O-care repubattack doubleplusungood refs unperson rewrite fullwise upsub antefiling.

Drago said...

For leftists history begins anew each day.

What the left might have said the day/week/month/year/etc before is irrelevant.

All that matters is what the "truth" needs to be today to advance the leftist cause.

Period.

All other considerations are secondary.

Further, there is an extraordinary number of liberals/leftists who will hear Nancy's latest assertion, see the video evidence of this lie, but will still "believe" her.

This ability to officially believe 2+2=5, even if yesterday it was 2+2=3 or 4, is what makes a leftist a leftist.

Drago said...

John Reece: "They therefore aren't conscious that in the age of Google and Youtube you can't get away with changing your story like you used to."

The dems know that the major media organs won't go near this.

They are banking on that.

Oh, and of course, the dems are also banking on their wind-up toys like garage to toe the line.

And the dems are right to think that, because he will.

Deb said...

As a friend's father used to say: "She'd rather climb a tree and tell a lie than stand on the ground and tell the truth."

Anonymous said...

I don't understand the Democrat's PR strategy. Instead of letting the message be "we think that the people who voted for us are stupid" they should be pointing out that they think that almost half the electorate is smart!

Anonymous said...

Btw, I wonder if Prof. Althouse thinks that there is potential for a qui tam action against Gruber?

And 'Gruber' is a German name that can be translated as 'hole-digger'.
Schadenfreudelicious indeed.

jr565 said...

Original Mike write:
"This is the same person who said that unemployment insurance creates jobs,"

recently Hllary had to walk back her statement that companies don't create jobs. And the left then said that wasn't what she REALLY. Yet, the left keeps saying this stuff so often, it can't possibly not be what they think.
As Goldfinger said to James Bond upon meeting him again. "the first time is happenstance, the second time is coincidence, the third time is enemy action."

Original Mike said...

"And 'Gruber' is a German name that can be translated as 'hole-digger'."

Really? That's funny.

Browndog said...

I thought calling politicians "liars" is taboo, even libel.

Whatever happened to "Misspoke" or "less than forthcoming".

For some reason our "public servants" hate being called liars when they lie; to the point it's damn near illegal.

Skeptical Voter said...

Looks to me as tbough her lying chickens have come home to roost in that empty head of hers.

I once asked a friend who lives in Pelosi's District (Pelosi doesn't spend much time in San Franscisco--she and her husband have a home in Napa where they spend most of their time) why San Franciscans keep sending Pelosi back to Congress. My friend said, and I quote, "Because she has courage." Sheesh! Can't be the courage of her convictions because she doesn't have any.

San Francisco has become a rotten borough of the sort that once adorned British parliamentary elections. You could run Bozo the Clown with a (D) after his her name, and San Francisco will send you to Congress--even if Bozo doesn't live there. And better yet, Bozo doesn't even have to live in the District.

As proof, I offer Botox Nancy, the female verion of Bozo the Clown.

n.n said...

Pelosi is exhibiting symptoms of cognitive dissonance. Perhaps she does have a conscience. Unfortunately, isolating herself from reality will only offer temporary relief. She needs to reconcile the cause(s) of her dissonance.

Doug said...

Ooh! I know this one! Lying!

Unknown said...

rumor in these parts (northern CA) is that she's a pill head

khesanh0802 said...

@ John Reece: Astute observation and accurate. They don't have a clue.

Mary Beth said...

"Pelosi's office told the Washington Post that the minority leader meant that she didn't know Gruber personally. "She said she doesn’t 'know who he is,' not that she’s never heard of him," Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said."

Just in case anyone wanted further proof that they think everyone else is stupid.

khesanh0802 said...

What I call " The John Mitchell Defense" (i. e. "I do not recall" ) is about to become commonplace as the Republicans open hearings into this mess and the IRS.

Browndog said...

From Firedog Lake-


kafka November 13th, 2014 at 2:08 pm
7

Rahm called us fucking retards. Gruber called us stupid. Would love to be a fly on the wall at some Georgetown cocktail party.


Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin used the term “polyezniy idiot”
to describe sympathizers in the West who blindly supported Communist leaders.

Generations later, these "useful" types don't even know any liberals--let alone commie marxists--

No, they are mainstream moderates, and everyone else is a right-wing extremist.

Useful. Idiots.

Bob R said...

I'm more with the facade theory. My guess is that the comments mentioning Gruber are just bullet points that she memorized without any intellectual engagement. She probably forgot Gruber's name 10 minutes after she said it. The real danger to her is that the "unelected others" are doing such a bad job prepping her. Apparently the American voter has some competition for the stupidity prize.

Browndog said...

Apparently the American voter has some competition for the stupidity prize.

The American voter never voted for this. It has never had public support in the polls, no republican ever voted for it, and the democrats had to use every trick in the book to pass it on Christmas eve.

Bob R said...

I've found another tape. It appears to be animated. Here is the transcript:

Jonathan H. Gruber, Supergenius. I like the way it rolls out. Jonathan H. Gruber, Suuuuupergenius.

Michael The Magnificent said...

It'll surprise no one that the spin within the very few recent articles at the huffingtonpost mentioning Jonathan Gruber are on how unhinged Fox News correspondents are about the subject, and how it was Republicans who are liars and opaque about the ACA.

How dare anyone question the Emperor's clothes! Only a deranged extremist could be so gauche.

Michael The Magnificent said...

Jonathan H. Gruber, Supergenius. I like the way it rolls out. Jonathan H. Gruber, Suuuuupergenius.

Sorry, but that title is already held by then-Senator Biden, and he has a business card to prove it. Oh, and for the lefties / low information voters / stupid Americans in the audience who watch the above video and are patting themselves on the back for electing such a supergenius to the white house, I'm sorry to say that the vast majority of what comes out of Biden's mouth in that video is complete and utter bullshit.

n.n said...

If the description of means and methods accurately describes the conception and gestation of Obamacare, then it does not really matter if Gruber was the "architect" or not. It seems like an excessive burden, an inviable clump of policies, that should have been aborted.

As for the "stupid Americans" rhetoric, I see Pelosi dancing with an oversized gavel, surrounded by greater and lesser minions. While Obama cracks his whip to direct compliance with his will.

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
n.n said...

Correction: Obama enjoys tee time while Holder cracks his whip to direct compliance with his boss's will.

James Pawlak said...

Did the "Botox" freeze her brain?

Anonymous said...

The reason the left is so upset at Nancy Pelosi, Obama and Reid is because Obamacare was supposed to be single payer. But they said, "OK, we'll let Obamacare be the road to single payer."

And now that they've mucked up Obamacare so badly, the public is like, "WTF?! If you can't even do Obamacare right, why should we trust you with single payer?"

This, of course, really angers the left.

Anonymous said...

Here is more from firedoglake that is even more damning.

More from Firedoglake

That's from 2010. And it's the first time I've tried a link in html, hope it works!

Krumhorn said...

Apparently, Jane Hamsher had Gruber's number back in January 2010. I'm sure her motives were geared to single-payer, but still...

...credit where due.

- Krumhorn

Krumhorn said...

oops! Sorry Eric. You got there first.

- Krumhorn

H said...

eric at 4:43.

This is coming so late in the comments, I'm afraid not very many people will see this. But I wish a lot of people would follow this link to the FDL (!!) article.

It's really about propaganda machine used to promote ACA.

Ezra Klein plays a central role. Can (these days) a purported journalist be discredited for acting as cog in the administration's propaganda machine? If (when?) this happened in the Nixon administration, journalists lost their reputations.

Blue Devils Democrat said...

I so much want Democrats to win and so much want Hillary! to be our POTUS – it is her time and we need her. So, this criticism of Pelosi and others will hurt us. Just ignore the Gruber story – it has no legs. Over and done with it. Our message: Who is more Transparent? We, the Democrats. Keep repeating it. Who respects the voters more? We, the Democrats. Keep repeating it.

Joe said...

Of course she's lying.

That said, based on statements by her and Harry Reid, I do think both really are suffering from an onset of dementia (especially Reid.)

Of course, suggesting that people over 70 should be golfing and bragging about their grandchildren to other people over 70, not running countries is politically incorrect.

MrCharlie2 said...

I think she has new plastic surgeon!

She really looks great, in my opinion. But, sometimes the mouth doesn't work so good.

Birkel said...

Look, everybody! Blue Devils Democrat is trying to be funny. Bless BDD's heart!

Anonymous said...

Um, what's this "our bill" BS, Nancy? ObamaCare was the Senate's bill, not the House's, and thanks to Scott Brown's election, all the House got was some minor moves in reconciliation.

So even if she were telling the truth, it would be irrelevant.