Dennis Cardoza: Pelosi's Favorite Lap Dog
Dennis Cardoza: Pelosi’s Favorite Lap Dog
Pelosi Puppet, Lap Dog, Anyway You Want to Frame it, Dennis Cardoza is the “Consummate Insider”
“While unemployment reaches 17 percent in parts of his district, Dennis Cardoza prefers to rub elbows with Democrat party bosses and be seen as the ‘consummate inside player’ rather than actively fighting for jobs in California,” said NRCC Communications Director Ken Spain. “Serving Pelosi as her right-hand puppet and her personal lobbyist to the double-dealing Blue Dogs seems to be taking up too much of Cardoza’s time because he still hasn’t found the time to answer what constituents have been asking him for months: Where are the jobs?”
Washington- In one of today’s inside-the-beltway publications, The Hill, Dennis Cardoza took front-and-center in a profile piece where he was portrayed as a Pelosi insider. Unfortunately for Cardoza, his two-faced ways have been discovered: While serving as a ‘consummate insider’ he continues to bark with the Blue Dog Dems.
The question needs to be asked: Who is Cardoza’s owner? All signs point to Pelosi:
Pelosi’s Right-Hand Puppet:
“When the House Democratic leadership assembles each week in the Speaker’s Conference Room, Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.) is the only lawmaker in the meeting with no official title and no leadership staff. He has no real reason to be there. Except that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wants him on hand.
She wanted someone who could keep her tapped into the thinking of the centrists in her caucus. So she turned to Cardoza, a Blue Dog from her home state with a conservative rural district.”
Playing Politics more Important than His Constituents?:
“Cardoza, a Blue Dog from Pelosi’s home state of California, has emerged as the emissary between the liberal Speaker and the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition. And that’s helped Cardoza become what associates say he has wanted to be from his first day in Congress — a consummate inside player.”
Where’s this Lap Dog’s Loyalty?:
“Pelosi confidants say she draws on Cardoza for help in taking the pulse of the 52-member coalition. She needs to know if key Blue Dogs are really speaking for the bulk of the group or just themselves. And sometimes she needs to know how to get their support on close votes.
One aide said Pelosi has, on occasion, leaned on Cardoza to persuade Blue Dogs to give in on key conservative principles, like waiving “pay-as-you-go” rules to get a bill passed.”
The Puppeteer Pulls Her Strings:
“Pelosi put Cardoza on the Rules Committee, the panel Pelosi uses to control floor action. That made him the Blue Dogs’ emissary to the panel often referred to as “the Speaker’s committee.””
SOURCE: Mike Soraghan, “Cardoza links Pelosi to centrists of caucus,” The Hill, 7/21/09
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