John Gizzi, newsmax.com
Image from article, with caption: Former Baltimore Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro, Jr., the father of Nancy Pelosi, praised the statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson when they were dedicated in 1948.
In the days following events Aug. 12 in Charlottesville, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called on Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to remove all of the Confederate statues from the U.S. Capitol "if Republicans are serious about rejecting white supremacy."
"The Confederate statues in the halls of Congress have always been reprehensible," declared Pelosi.
Pelosi will have to explain why she never tried to take down any of those "reprehensible" statues during her own stint as House speaker herself from 2007-11.
Newsmax also called Pelosi's office to ask her opinion on another issue regarding her call for the removal of Confederate statues: the powerful praise for statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson from the Democratic mayor of her own home city of Baltimore, Maryland, when they were dedicated in 1948.
Her office did not return our call.
The mayor was Pelosi's father, Democrat Thomas D'Alesandro, Jr.
In a powerful oration before a crowd of more than 3,000, Mayor D'Alesandro made the case for remembering and studying the lives of Lee and Jackson: "World Wars I and II found the North and South fighting for a common cause, and the generalship displayed by these two great men in the War Between the States lived on and were applied in the military plans of our nation and the Pacific areas."[JB emphasis]
Referring to contemporaneous efforts by Communists to undermine the U.S. from within, D'Alesandro said "Today, with our nation beset by subversive groups and propaganda which seeks to destroy our national unity, we can look for inspiration to the lives of Lee and Jackson to remind us to be resolute and determined in preserving our sacred institutions."
With Soviet Russia gobbling up Eastern Europe and the Cold War beginning, D'Alesandro called on Americans "to emulate Jackson's example and stand like a stone wall against aggression in any form that would seek to destroy the liberty of the world." (Baltimore Sun, May 2, 1948)
As U.S. Representative from 1939-47, "Tommy" D'Alesandro, father of Pelosi and her five brothers, was considered a New Deal Democrat (one of his sons was named Franklin Delano Roosevelt D'Alesandro after FDR). As mayor from 1947-59, D'Alesandro was widely credited for revitalizing downtown Baltimore, and he has a statue of his own in the Charm City.
The statues of the two Confederate heroes, both sculpted on horseback, were, according to The Baltimore Sun, "financed by the late J. Henry Ferguson [who] left $100,000 to honor the generals, who have been called 'the greatest American combat team,' by Douglass Southall Freeman, Lee's biographer."
The Sun quoted Ferguson's will that Lee and Jackson "were my boyhood heroes and mature judgment has only strengthened my admiration for them. They were great generals and Christian soldiers. They waged war like gentlemen, and I feel their example should be held up to the youth of Maryland."
The military parade included cadets from Virginia Military Institute and detachments of military police and the Women's Army Corps. Along with D'Alesandro, speakers included then-Democratic Gov. William Preston Lane.
And, as the Sun reported, "Outdoors, hawkers peddled Confederate flags, sales being fairly good at $1 each."
Last week, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh ordered the statues of Lee and Jackson that were unveiled with such fanfare to be taken down.
As this story was published, Pelosi's office had still not returned our call and told us what she thought of her father imploring Baltimoreans to "emulate Jackson's example and stand like a stone wall against aggression in any form that would seek to destroy the liberty of the world."
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