Should The Current Speaker of the House be Expelled From Office?

Opinion/analysis

Since there is no recourse for the people of the State of California to recall a congressional representative for disorderly behavior, perhaps it would be prudent for the House of Representatives to undertake their constitutional duties.

Expulsion is the most serious form of disciplinary action that can be taken against a Member of Congress. Article I, Section 5 of the United States Constitution provides that "Each House [of Congress] may determine the Rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member." LINK

Question: If the people of the district of San Francisco were polled today, would they prefer that Nancy Pelosi not be holding up a national tax policy compromise that, (if not passed), could very well lead to the economic collapse of this country? How about the people of the state of New York, or Seattle, or (insert you own liberal bastion). Could these folks be putting their own political ideologies ahead of the welfare of the entire nation? Food for thought. Yet, the actions of Nancy Pelosi and a hard-core coalition of far left liberals are willing to take this risk at the expense of millions who are wondering whether they will have an unemployment check. Many have no idea if their jobs will be there on Monday. President Obama said “We cannot play politics at a time when the American people are looking for us to solve problems…..“, and yet solving problems for Americans doesn’t appear to be on Pelosi’s agenda. Is she thinking this country can survive her “collateral damage”:

“I am not willing to let that happen. I know there’s some people in my own party and in the other party who would rather prolong this battle, even if we can't reach a compromise. But I'm not willing to let working families across this country become collateral damage for political warfare here in Washington. And I'm not willing to let our economy slip backwards just as we're pulling ourselves out of this devastating recession……

I'm not willing to see 2 million Americans who stand to lose their unemployment insurance at the end of this month be put in a situation where they might lose their home or their car or suffer some additional economic catastrophe. LINK

Ms. Pelosi doesn’t even seem to listen to her own home-town newspaper:

Memo to outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: New polling shows that there is no national groundswell among either Democrats or liberals demanding defeat of the tax-cut compromise negotiated by President Obama and congressional Republicans.
A clear majority of Americans favors the agreement to prolong the Bush tax cuts for two more years, a new Rasmussen report finds.

But the big news in the latest poll is that Democrats and liberals are split right down the middle — despite the loud protests by some liberal House members, Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and liberal commentators on cable TV.
LINK

A huge journalistic OUCH! It would have been nice if the Chronicle had also advised Pelosi to strip out all the pork the House is preparing to add to the bill, but this would be wishful thinking. This writer thinks Ms. Pelosi has over-estimated her “groundswell” support for not passing the compromise---as agreed upon by the President and the Republicans. If this the course Pelosi has chosen, perhaps her own body of representatives should consider her expulsion. Certainly the oath she took to “well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office” did not include putting this country in financial peril.