US Congress leader Pelosi calls Bush 'a total failure'
Fri, Jul 18, 2008
AFP
WASHINGTON - US HOUSE of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday called President George W. Bush 'a total failure' who 'has no ideas,' in an interview with CNN.
Responding to stinging criticism from Mr Bush on the Democratic leadership in both houses of Congress and the slow pace of the legislative agenda, as Congress prepares for its one-month summer recess in August, Ms Pelosi let loose: 'You know, God bless him, bless his heart, the president of the United States, a total failure, losing all credibility with the American people on the economy, on the war, on energy, you name the subject.'
Ms Pelosi, 68, said the House and Senate were busy 'trying to sweep up after (Bush's) mess over and over and over again ... The president knows it. He needs something to talk about. Because he has no ideas.'
The speaker was especially critical of Mr Bush's proposal to lift a ban on offshore oil drilling as a means to ease the current fuel price crisis, calling it a ploy to draw attention away from his failures.
'We have seven and a half years of failed energy policy by the Bush administration. We have a faltering, downturning economy. The president needs a decoy.
'So he's going out there, he even has the nerve to say the economy would be better off if we could drill in protected areas offshore,' she said, adding the Democrats' proposal to free up the US strategic petroleum reserve, which she said is 91.5 per cent full.
'And we're saying let's take 10 per cent of that ... and use that to put on the market so that we increase supply, reduce prices, and when the price comes down, we can buy back the oil at a lower price.'-- AFP
