Others wasted no words when asked for more reasons why Pelosi had bothered to poke at the administration in the twilight of Bush's final term.
"Because they'd have done it to us in a second" if a Democratic president had made the same choices, said Dane Strother, a Democratic strategist working on several congressional campaigns.
He and other Democrats said they were not hearing constituents outside the Beltway comment one way or another on the contempt citations specifically.
Rather, Wexler said, people ask questions about why Democrats have been unable to force changes in policy on Iraq, children's health care and immigration. He said Democrats need to make the case they are challenging Bush more on his use of warrantless wiretaps and claims of executive power to ignore Congress.
He said Pelosi "has successfully begun establishing that Democrats have a backbone and that Democrats can be bold in standing up to the president. That's critically important both substantively but also for political purposes."
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