It Gets A Bit Chilly At Night If You’re One of the Little People

One funny thing about Democrats–the leading ones, anyway–is that they’re pretty much all rich. I mean really rich, not “rich” like you and your spouse together make $250,000 a year, so now you have to pay someone else’s mortgage.

This makes for a lot of amusing moments; one of them took place today when Nancy Pelosi teamed up with Brad Pitt for a media availability on rebuilding efforts in New Orleans. Pelosi has never earned much money herself, but she is married to a fabulously rich real estate developer who lets her be Speaker of the House to give her something to occupy her time. What Pitt’s role in the proceedings was, I’m not sure. Also present was Jim Clyburn, Congressman from South Carolina and the Majority Whip:

PITT: Thank you. Thank you. I just want to say thank you to the speaker for opening up her doors for us to come in and discuss the rebuilding effort, the current rebuilding effort going on in New Orleans and how we can expand this idea of affordability and sustainability because we think we have a model to works.

Thank you.

PELOSI: You might be interested in knowing, Mr. Clyburn and I were just hearing a little bit. We’re going to hear more now, but Mr. Clyburn is the head of our Katrina Task Force. So he’s led us delegations down to the Gulf Coast area many times.

And we were listening with great satisfaction to the fact that not are [sic] these homes — wonderful homes for these families — not are [sic] they built to a green standard, but they have a utility bill of under $10 a month.

PITT: It’s possible.

PELOSI: It’s possible to have a utility bill under $10 a month.

I suppose it might be, if your house is a ten-foot cube, and you have an outhouse, no heating or air conditioning, and no telephone. Ten dollars could possibly cover your water bill. Do you think that either Brad Pitt or Nancy Pelosi has any idea how much utilities actually cost? I doubt it. This is a photo of one of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s homes, a $70 million estate in France:

AngelinaJolieBradPittHouseFrance.jpg.jpeg

What do you suppose those utilities might cost? Ten dollars a minute? Do you think the Pitt/Jolie home–this is one of many, no doubt–is “sustainable,” whatever that means?

I couldn’t find a photo of the Pelosis’ principal residence, probably because security guards keep papparazzi at a safe distance. But this is a nice shot of the Pelosis’ California vineyard, which uses non-union labor; click to enlarge:

PelosiVineyard88.jpg

Do you suppose that growing grapes and making wine consumes some pretty formidable utilities? Yes, I think so too. But that’s different, of course; no need to be “sustainable” when you’re rich.

I’m not sure how Clyburn got invited to this party, but he was treated as a bit of a poor relation:

PELOSI: Mr. Clyburn, did you want to say anything?

CLYBURN: Thank you, Madam Speaker.

And thank you, Brad.

I did not realize when the speaker asked me to chair the Katrina- Rita Task Force that it would lead to my getting in a position to make my grandchildren so envious of me because this effort brought the two of us, Brad Pitt and myself, together. In a Time-Picayune, in an editorial some time ago, talked about the benevolence of strangers.

PELOSI: The kindness of strangers.

CLYBURN: The kindness of strangers.

I have no idea what phrase the Times-Picayune used in its editorial, and I doubt that Pelosi does either. But she assumed the reference must be to A Streetcar Named Desire and “corrected” Clyburn, which was entirely needless, and rude, even if accurate. But, hey–if you’re a Democrat, you never get off the plantation, do you? Clyburn isn’t rich.

Meanwhile, those “sustainable” homes in New Orleans with utility bills that total under $10 a month are either a complete fiction, or the recipients of heavy (but unmentioned) taxpayer subsidies.

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