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Nancy Pelosi

Queen Bee Syndrome Buzzes Washington
January 4, 2007

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Ah, this is juicy. This, folks, is when the real fun begins. The new Congress, the Democrat Congress is in the process of being coronated and sworn in, and I swear, watching television this morning, I first asked myself, the way the news media is covering this, “How people in this country are actually sitting on the edge of their seats with bated breath -- (panting) -- all excited and revved up about the fact that the Democrats run Congress again?” My guess is that it's not the first couple of things on most people's minds today. It is certainly on a lot, but not most, and yet of course the Democrats with their arrogance are acting like this is all that is happening today. May as well be a national holiday the way they're treating it. In fact, Nancy Pelosi's coronation has even irritated Andrea Mitchell.

On PMSNBC just this morning she was talking to John Dingell, one of the aging Democrats in the House of Representatives, and Andrea Mitchell said, “Are you happy with this big celebration that Nancy Pelosi has planned for herself? It's a bit unseemly to have Stevie Wonder and Tony Bennett and the dinners and the lunches and the brunches and the trip to Baltimore to rename the street in her honor. Isn't this a little bit too imperial?” Dingell said, “Of course not.” (Laughing.)

At any rate, greetings, my friends, and welcome. This, the Rush Limbaugh program, a program that meets and surpasses all audience expectations on a daily basis. By the way, late-breaking news, White House legal counsel Harriet Miers, just now it was reported, submitted her resignation, trying to steal the news cycle from Nancy Pelosi. Doubt that it will work. Harriet Miers gone as White House legal counsel. Anyway, we'll go back to this. Watching television this morning here, and, by the way, I actually had it on yesterday, but I didn't listen to any of it. Today I did. Folks, I can't tell you, I would encourage each and every one of you to try this. From December 22nd until January 3rd, I did not watch one second of any television network or channel that had news on it, not one. Well, I watched Sports Center. But hard news, didn't watch any of it, and it was refreshing and it was rejuvenating.

Today was the first time I actually watched and paid attention. I had it on yesterday, but not as people sit down and, you know, SpongeBob it, watching television and soaking it up. But today I was just laughing myself silly. The first thing that happened was that Mitch McConnell, a Republican leader in the Senate, came out with Dingy Harry, the Democrat leader -- and we've got tape of Dingy Harry on this coming – and he goes on and on and on and on and on, “Oh, this is a new day, bipartisanship is back, partisanship is over.” It was utopia, folks, it literally was, “We’re gonna cure all diseases, today, because we are going to do embryonic stem cell research, and we're going to pass it; and we are going to end poverty today because we are going to raise the minimum wage; and we're going to get everybody to college, because we are going to lower interest rates for McClellan loans; and we're going to continue to allow and improve, maybe increase the tax deduction on college tuition.” More on that in a moment. “We’re going to kick out all the lobbyists. The lobbyists have had it! They're not going to be influencing us. This is a new day, and we are going to bring Big Oil to its knees.”

I'm watching this, and I'm thinking, “These people believe it.” The Democrats actually believe this stuff, or at least they want everybody watching to believe it. But I think they actually do. You know, government is their birthright. Power is their entitlement, and they've got it. They've got it, ladies and gentlemen. It's finally back in their grip. It's in the palm of their hands. They don't intend to let it go. In fact, every time Republicans won elections since 1994, the immediate day after the press would begin stories on what do the Democrats have to do to win back their power. Today, I watched the Drive-By Media members ask Democrats, “What do you have to do to get reelected?” (Laughing.) They are not asking Republicans what they have to do to win back power.

Now, Nancy Pelosi is the queen bee today and that takes us to today's morning update, and that is Queen Bee Syndrome. There's a new study from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, and it points to the existence of something researchers call the queen bee syndrome. Now, simply stated, simply stated (talking to someone in studio) Esther, Esther, are you listening to this? Did you come by here to watch the program or chew the fat? I want you to pay attention to this, Esther, because you're a woman. We're talking about the queen bee syndrome. Simply stated, the queen bee syndrome is this. Women bosses are more likely than men to prevent other women from advancing. They will do everything they can to slice competing women out of the picture, get 'em off the corporate ladder. When applications for promotion were put in front of women, they overwhelmingly rated male candidates more qualified than women. They didn't want women competing.

This is why when you see a female CEO at any company, you don't find too many females on the board, and you don't find too many subordinates that are female. They are always mostly men. Now, the lead author of this report says that “Female and older participants showed more prejudice against the (idea of a) female leader than did male and younger participants.” According to this syndrome, the queen bee syndrome, women take out potential threats to their power to secure their role as the only female at the top. There is no power sharing. Which takes us to Nancy Pelosi and two other women in Washington. Right here in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers in no less than the Washington Post today, "Passed Over by Pelosi, Harman Doesn't Get Even, She Gets Mad." This is the first bit of evidence of the queen bee syndrome. Jane Harman, she's the wife of the Harman of Harman Kardon Stereo. Did you know that, Craig? Yeah. Her reputation is that she's bright.

She's liberal, I mean she's a commie babe, but she's bright, educated, intelligent, and she was in line to become the chairman of the House intelligence committee, and of course Pelosi said, nope, you're not going to be that, and put some guy who doesn't even know what religion Al-Qaeda is, Sylvestre Reyes, in her place. So she got one woman out of the way, got Jane Harman out of the way. They had a personal spat, nobody knows what it was really about, some couple of years ago, and once Nancy got to the speakership that was it for Jane Harman, queen bee syndrome playing out. Now, the way Harman is reacting to this has been to openly complain that she was cut loose by Pelosi. She's a Harvard law grad, has a gold-plated political résumé, and was the ranking Democrat on the intelligence committee when the Republicans ran the whole place.

She has lamented that Congress has lost its luster for her now, and she's going to hang in, but she hopes for a job in a Democrat administration. She's obsessed, says a source to the Washington Post, been hard for her not to take this Pelosi thing personally, but it's over. But there's another woman involved in the queen bee syndrome in Washington, and that happens to be Hillary Rodham Clinton. Now, in setting this up, let's go audio sound bite number five, Mike. This is yesterday in Washington. One of these numerous brunches, lunches, cocktail parties, teas that Pelosi attended. It was an afternoon tea. Five hundred women -- it was actually a thousand-dollar a ticket fund-raiser -- and here's a portion of Pelosi's remarks.

PELOSI: I thought you were going to say when you placed my name in nomination for speaker, you said, “She will be the most powerful woman in America.” Now, I want you all to join me in how I acknowledge Rosie's introduction. (Laughing) All right, let's hear it for the power.

RUSH: She had a Rosie the Riveter arm symbol next to her, so that's what Rosie's introduction is. So here's Pelosi openly acknowledging that she is the most powerful woman in America. Now, over in the Senate, wearing bright red today, having just taken her oath is another woman who thinks that she is, and that is Hillary Rodham Clinton. So you have to apply the queen bee syndrome to this to this as well. I would advise somebody, if you know Nancy Pelosi, I would advise you to pass on this research from the Max Planck Institute to her, because if she's inclined, Ms. Pelosi's inclined to dismiss this research, all she has to do is keep getting media attention as the nation's most powerful female Democrat leader, because the other woman who thinks she's the queen bee, Hillary Clinton, will have something to say about this.

It's going to be interesting to watch and I pointed out yesterday, talking about this politically just for a second, Pelosi is as far left as you can get and still not be considered a fringe wacko. It's close, and Hillary does not need that. She can't stand for that to be the party ID as she seeks the presidential nomination, Democratic Party. She's spent the last two or three years trying to fake everybody out into thinking she's a centrist and even conservative on some things. And here's Pelosi, “I'm the most powerful woman in America.” She's defining the Democratic Party as this far-left fringe bunch, and this is going to present a problem for Hillary that Hillary is going to have to deal with. Folks, this is not a sexist comment. I'm making this as an anthropological, sociological comment. This queen bee syndrome -- Dawn's rolling her eyes because you think you know what's coming. This queen bee syndrome, there is something to it. I mean, everybody talks about how men fight, but when two women want the same thing, get out of the way. Just get out of the way, and it can become as nasty as everybody think men can be.

This is going to be one of these circumstances we're going to have a lot of fun watching this, because Pelosi is running around acting like Tarzan and Jane all in one. There's no humility being involved in this, or being exhibited and, you know, the Clintons have their FBI files, and on whom we don't know, but their war room is… Now, Hillary doesn't fear Pelosi in terms of Democratic presidential nomination, but she's going to be very bugged by the fact Pelosi continues to run around acting like she's the only queen bee in town or in the country, and more concerning to Hillary will be the way Pelosi defines the Democratic Party, or tries to.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here's the Andrea Mitchell bite. Because, you know, some of you find that so unbelievable that Andrea Mitchell would actually be critical of any Democrat, particularly Pelosi. Here it is with PMSNBC this morning, Andrea Mitchell and John Dingell, Democrat, Michigan. Every time I pronounce Dingell's name correctly, I thank God I haven't screwed it up because it's so close to profanity.

MITCHELL: Are you happy with this big celebration that Nancy Pelosi has planned for herself? Is it a bit unseemly to have, you know, Stevie Wonder and Tony Bennett and the dinners and the lunches and the brunches and the trip to Baltimore to rename the street in honor of her? Isn't this a little bit too imperial?

DINGELL: No, I think not.

RUSH: Of course not.

DINGELL: Each individual and each party celebrates events of this kind in their own way. Let's look at this. Nancy Pelosi is the first woman speaker in history. This marks an extraordinary event.

RUSH: Yes, yes, it does. Well, there you've heard it. One more bite here and then we'll get to the phone calls. This is last night on CNN, Anderson Cooper's 360. He's talking with David Rodham Gergen, and Cooper says, “Now, if you were Hillary, what would you do about Barack Obama?”

GERGEN: There's nothing you can do. You can't attack him. It's conceivable that she might even want him to be a running mate. So I think to have any kind of vitriolic campaign would be a mistake. She needs to emphasize what she believes in, where she's going, her experience, and most importantly show that she is not the sort of, this, this harridan from the left that has -- around the country she's so easily stereotyped, because, you know, there is a fear among people around her that the best day of her campaign is going to come the day she announces, and after that she's just going to be under unmerciful attack, talk radio, the Rush Limbaughs of the world and it's going to -- you know, they'll just make a piñata out of her.

RUSH: David, where you been? We've been doing that since 1993 or '92, the campaign. Why does he think that we've been waiting to turn her into a piñata? You can't ratchet it up much more than we already have. I don't know what these people are thinking. At any rate, okay, promised to go to the phones, and we do.
END TRANSCRIPT
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