Pelosi Promises Watch

As we observed the campaigns for Congress last fall, the Democrats propelled their party to a narrow majority in both houses on a number of promises. Chiefly, they told us that all Republicans are racist, child molesters and corrupt money-grubbers itching for lobbyists' money. These caricatures each had patron saints, but Congressmen Foley, Ney and Cunningham all resigned voluntarily whereas William Jefferson, (D, LA) who was caught with $90,000 in bribe money in his freezer got reelected and sits in Congress today. Even if all of the Democrats' charges were true, they ran on a surprisingly small number of agenda items. In addition to promising not to be George W. Bush, they ran on raising the minimum wage and possibly doing something about the war, but they were seldom in agreement about what. Since taking office, they have raised the minimum wage and taken decisive action on the war by passing a non-binding beauty contest resolution saying that they do not like the surge.
How is Speaker Pelosi doing on her principal promises? She vowed to end lobbyist corruption, allow the Republicans to participate in all debates and to make contributions to bills, and she decried the three-day workweeks that Speaker Hastert had allowed, vowing to make the five-day workweek a hallmark of the 110th Congress. Speaker Pelosi broke her promise of inclusion for the Republicans before the first gavel convened the House. She announced when she unveiled her 100 hours plan that no Republican amendments would be permitted. The majority party can do this, and no one was surprised that she did, but the fact that she had promised not to makes her a hypocrite. The fact that she broke this promise before the first piece of legislation also shows that she never had any intention of keeping her word. This story from the Politico is here: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0207/2908.html
As far as lobbyist money, the Washington Post details here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/23/AR2007022301978_pf.html that the Democrats are using their various committee chairmen in the House to head fundraising events involving lobbyists. No one is surprised by this turn of events, but they did promise a change. For the final promise, in eight weeks, Pelosi's Congressmen have managed to log one five-day workweek, so that vow has not been a total bust.
Are you disillusioned by all this? I'm not because this is what I had expected to see happen. If any independent voters are watching, however, they might realize that their votes against an apparently incompetent party and for a change in 2006 have not had the desired effect. Instead, we have more of the same and a hypocritical new Speaker who thinks she needs a 757 provided by the Air Force at taxpayer expense.