Human
Events...
Nancy
Pelosi, Down and Dirty
by Michelle Malkin
12/16/2011
As
a rueful Queen Elizabeth once said
of a particularly rough year for the royal family, 2011 is “not a year
on
which” Queen Nancy Pelosi “shall look back with undiluted pleasure.”
The former
House Speaker relinquished her crown -- er, gavel -- in January. It’s
been an
epic downhill ski crash ever since.
Most
recently, Pelosi faced questions
from liberal “60 Minutes” and conservative investigative author Peter
Schweitzer about a 5,000-share Visa stock purchase she made with her
husband as
the House was considering credit card regulations. She made a “killing”
off the
highly sought-after initial public offering. The stock holdings more
than
doubled in a few weeks; the credit card regulations were put on ice
somewhere
in the back of Pelosi’s fridge.
While
she makes grand gestures toward
banning congressional insider trading, San Fran Nan’s financial
conflicts of
interest are once again on display. This week, Reuters columnist Dan
Indiviglio
pointed to pending House legislation titled the “New Alternative
Transportation
to Give Americans Solutions Act of 2011,” which is stuffed with natural
gas
vehicle subsidies: $9 billion worth, to be precise. These very
subsidies are
championed by Texas billionaire and failed wind farm evangelist T.
Boone
Pickens. He just happens to be a major stockholder in the company that
would
benefit from the bill: Clean Energy Fuels.
Question
the timing? Indeed. As The
Washington Examiner’s Tim Carney observes: “While Pickens, a longtime
oil and
gas man, has been lobbying for natural gas subsidies for decades, his
cause has
become particularly urgent this month. Pickens owns options to buy 15
million
shares of Clean Energy Fuels at $10 per share, according to SEC
filings. Those
options expire Dec. 28. If Congress could pass the NATGAS Act this
month,
shares of Clean Energy would skyrocket.”
Pelosi
just happens to be a
stockholder in -- you guessed it -- Clean Energy Fuels. The
then-Speaker bought
between $50,000 and $100,000 of stock in Pickens’ CLNE Corp. in May
2007 on the
day of the initial public offering. As I reported in a column three
years ago,
Pelosi’s 2007 financial disclosure form listed “assets and ‘unearned
income’ of
between $100,001-$250,000 from Clean Energy Fuels Corp. -- Public
Common
Stock.” If the natural gas giveaway passes, Pelosi profits.
Of
course, an endless parade of dirty
Democratic scandals earlier this year had already completely
obliterated what
was left of Pelosi’s Mop-and-Glo reformer image. She and other liberal
feminists rallied around disgraced Twitter freak and former N.Y.
Democratic
Rep. Anthony Weiner even as evidence mounted that he lied to them. And
used
taxpayer resources and government buildings while sexting. And
recklessly
neglected to ensure that his Internet paramours were of legal age.
Pelosi
and fellow femme-a-gogue Debbie
Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., led from behind, calling for Weiner’s
resignation
only after the public tide had shifted. Pelosi showed similar reticence
in
dealing with basket-case Oregon Democratic Rep. David Wu -- whose
sexually
aggressive, alcohol-addled erratic outbursts stretched over decades.
Despite
knowledge of Wu’s staff’s panic about his infamous 2010 Tigger costume
photos
and despite months-old pleas for help from an underage victim of Wu’s
sexual
indiscretions, House Democrats sat on their hands. In July, Pelosi
finally
called for an investigation by the House Ethics Committee.
That’s
the same panel that slapped
Pelosi pal and New York Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel on the wrist for
serial
tax-cheating and has yet to move forward with California Democratic
Rep. Maxine
Waters’ ethics trial after charging her last year with three violations
related
to her crony TARP bailout intervention on behalf of minority-owned
OneUnited
Bank in Los Angeles.
What
a way to close out her annus
horribilis. Nancy Pelosi, the proud feminist who boasted she would
clean up
Washington, is covering up and cashing in. Just like all the other
self-dealing
good old boys.
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this and other columns at Human
Events
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