The Speaker of the House is beneath contempt.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is drawing heat for suggesting her political opponents are fond of the war in Iraq.

“The grassroots are justifiably disappointed and I am too that we could not do something to end this war,” Pelosi said at a press conference today. “The assumption that I made that the Republicans would soon see the light and listen to their constituents was not an accurate one.”

She continued: “They like this war. They want this war to continue. We thought that they shared the view of so many people in our country that we need a new direction in Iraq. To affect that we need redeployment of our troops with a goal of a year to do that. But the Republicans have made it very clear that this is just not George Bush’s war, this is the war of the Republicans in Congress.”

Asked to clarify her use of the word “like,” Pelosi backed off her statement of moments before.

“When I say ‘like,’ I shouldn’t say they ‘like’ the war. They support the war, the course of action that the president is on and they are not questioning in terms of his implementation of the war, the execution of the war.”

Yeah, she backed off once she realized what a foolish thing she had said, and perhaps anticipating the blistering response she would earn. But what she said is what she really thinks. What a crow. Republicans don’t “like” the war. We just want to fight it to win it.

Her “backing off” is nearly as mistaken as her initial statement. Many if not most Republicans are on the record criticizing various aspects of the handling of the war. I don’t know of anyone who thinks it has been handled perfectly. Sen. McCain is basing part of his candidacy for president on having been the first to criticize the Bush administration on the war while offering up a viable strategy to win it.

Pelosi is simply not a leader worthy of the office she holds. She’s not up to the job. Check out her record just in the past few weeks. Or recall that she contemplated putting the disgraced and corrupt Alcee Hastings in charge of the House Intelligence Committee. Or her attempt to put Jack “Abscam” Murtha in as Majority Leader. Or her for-it-before-she-was-against-it dishonesty on waterboarding.

What a thoroughly awful leader San Fran Nan is.

Update: Gateway Pundit has video of San Fran Nan’s speech.