Democrats Seek `Middle Path` in Gov`t Policy

“Here’s the thing: The country must be governed from the middle. A country must be governed from the middle. Now, I say that being a proud progressive Democrat in the Congress of the United States and as speaker of the House,” said U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

With attention being drawn to policy directives of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, the Democrats led by Pelosi said Wednesday that the next administration should govern the country “from the middle.”

Pelosi, an influential Obama supporter and the most prominent liberal in the House, told reporters, “You have to bring people together to reach consensus on solutions that are sustainable and acceptable to the American people,” and urged the next government to seek a middle path.

For his part, Obama also stressed unity while praising the Republican Party in his acceptance speech at Grant Park in Chicago, saying, “Let`s resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. The Republican Party was founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty and national unity. Those are values we all share.”

The liberal camp, however, struck a different note. Robert Borosage, president of the liberal Institute for America’s Future, told a news conference, “Americans voted overwhelmingly for change. We should aggressively pursue progressive agendas.”

Amid heated debate over the new administration’s ideological inclination, Obama announced his presidential transition team.

The White House chief of staff job has been reportedly offered to Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel, who is said to be close to Pelosi.

Mark Gitenstein and Ted Kaufman, old friends of Vice President-elect Joseph Biden, will co-chair the transition team, the Washington Post said. They will be assisted by former Environmental Protection Agency head Carol Browner; Obama’s friend and former Commerce Secretary William Daley; University of California-Berkeley School of Law Dean Christopher Edley; and national security adviser to Obama Susan Rice.

Obama is expected to name as early as Thursday the next treasury secretary, who will have the formidable task of steering the U.S. economy out of turmoil. The leading candidates are New York Federal Reserve President Timothy Geithner; former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, who served in the Clinton administration; and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, according to the Associated Press.

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