NRCC launches petition to 'Fire Pelosi'

A Republican group now hopes to collect more than 200,000 signatures demanding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) ouster, their leader announced Thursday.

In an e-mail to supporters, National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Tx.) excoriated the speaker for "kowtowing to the far-left" at a time when the United States needed to focus on national security. Sessions also debuted the NRCC's new campaign to solicit a staggering 204,997 voters' signatures -- one more than the number of votes Pelosi received in 2008 -- in support of her theoretical 'firing.'

"Time and again, Pelosi has shown that she is an ineffective Speaker of the House," Sessions wrote in the e-mail. "Pelosi and her puppets have driven our national deficit to an all-time high, more Americans are losing jobs and she continues to make decisions putting our national security at risk. We must fire Pelosi and you can help our efforts by signing the petition right away."

Pelosi has always maintained a tenuous relationship with the Republican group. But tensions between the two grew manifestly this week when the NRCC said Gen. Stanley McChrystal ought to put the speaker "in her place" after she voiced opposition to the general's proposal to increase troops to Afghanistan. Pelosi fired back on Thursday, calling the NRCC's remark "inappropriate" and asserting she was already "in her place" as Speaker of the House.

The NRCC has since defended its comment -- as well as its support for McChrystal and his proposal to deploy additional troops to Afghanistan. But Sessions' e-mail Thursday afternoon perhaps took the standoff to a new level, insisting Pelosi had made "party politics a higher priority than our national security."

"Republicans are in a strong position to take back the House majority and fire Pelosi in the 2010 midterm election," Sessions said in his e-mail. "In terms of candidate recruitment, fundraising, and issue development, we are far ahead of where we were at this point in 1993 - and you remember what happened in 1994."

Interestingly enough, this is not the first time the NRCC has mobilized to oust Pelosi. A petition sent to the members of the House's Blue Dog coalition at the beginning of September asked 55 moderate Democrats to pledge a vote against her "if House leadership elections were held today."