Pelosi prays for Bush to change policies By: Josh Kraushaar Oct 7, 2007 04:04 PM EST
Pelosi disagrees with party's major Democratic hopefuls on continued U.S. troop presence in Iraq in 2013. Photo: AP SAVE
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RECOMMEND House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Sunday that she prays for President Bush to change his policies "all the time," and has specifically prayed for him to sign legislation boosting heath insurance coverage for children.
"First of all, I pray for President Bush all the time, and I pray especially hard that he would sign the children's health bill because it's so important for America's children," Pelosi said on Fox News Sunday. "I pray that he makes the right decisions for the American people."
But she said she doesn't pray specifically "for a political outcome."
"We just pray that God's will will be done. We pray for the children, we pray for poor people, we pray for people who need help," she said. "And we always, always, always pray for our men and women in uniform who make our freedom to pray possible."
In the same appearance, Pelosi also she disagreed with her party's leading Democratic presidential nominees on whether there should be any long-term U.S. troop presence in Iraq, adding that the party's inability to end the war has been politically costly for Congressional Democrats.
At last month's Democratic presidential debate, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y), Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards all declined to pledge to remove all U.S forces from Iraq by 2013.
"I think the Democrats in the House of Representatives are much more optimistic than that," Pelosi said. "My view would be much more optimistic than what our presidential candidates are saying."
Pelosi acknowledged that Congress' inability to end the Iraq war was causing public approval of its performance to drop to record lows.
"The public is weary about this war. They want it to end, and they had expectations that Congress would end it. That focus on the war has eclipsed all that we have accomplished here," she said.
While stopping short of endorsing Clinton for her party's presidential nomination, Pelosi said it "would be exciting" to have both a female president and House speaker. But she also said it was more difficult for a woman to become speaker of the House than to win the presidency.
"This is a men's club here and I sometimes I think it's harder to become speaker of the House than president of the United States for a woman," Pelosi said.