Speaker Pelosi did a remarkable job as speaker, holding a relatively small caucus together to pass vital legislation. She also reminded us that smart, tough women didn’t let bullies and tyrants have their way just because they yelled the loudest. pic.twitter.com/I1lDwFCbv7
— Christina Reynolds (@creynoldsnc) November 17, 2022
That was probably the best public moment of her career, even better than ripping up Trump’s speech or standing up at the table in the White House https://t.co/nQtvXZRQUK
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) November 17, 2022
Pelosi on why attack on her husband convinced her to stay in Congress: “I couldn’t give them that satisfaction.”@mollyesque https://t.co/KOOHgBeCeu
— Aman Batheja (@amanbatheja) November 18, 2022
I highly recommend Molly Ball’s book, Pelosi — she obviously likes and respects her subject:
Ever since the election, Nancy Pelosi says, congressional Democrats have been begging her to remain as their leader. Of course, she knew what they were really doing: currying favor, just in case.
“Our members were just exploding my phone to stay,” she says, “which is a nice thing, because if I don’t stay, then they’ve gotten the points for saying ’stay,’ and if I do—“ she trailed off, laughing. No matter what she decided, they knew it would be in their interest to be on her good side going forward.
For two decades, it has been in every congressional Democrat’s interest to stay in Pelosi’s good graces. Since winning her first leadership position in 2001, she has ruled the House Democratic caucus with an iron fist and a velvet glove, keeping her fractious party in near-lockstep during historically tumultuous times. From the Iraq War to the financial crisis, through health-care reform and government shutdowns, through two presidential impeachments, a pandemic and an insurrection attempt, she has been a constant force and consummate operator. No national politician of her era can match her combination of legislative prowess, vote-counting savvy, negotiating skill, and fundraising ability…
Ask Pelosi about her legacy, and the first thing she’ll mention is the Affordable Care Act. However flawed and incomplete the 2010 law’s guarantee of universal access to health care may have proven, it represented the fulfillment of a century of liberal aspirations, and the pinnacle of Pelosi’s legislative craft. She moved mountains to get it through the House, at one point nearly breaking down in tears as she begged a group of liberal feminists to swallow an unsavory compromise on abortion funding. Then, after a special election robbed Democrats of their supermajority in the Senate, she urged then-President Obama not to give up on the historic legislation. “If the gate’s closed, you go over the fence,” she said at the time. “If the fence is too high, we’ll pole-vault in. If that doesn’t work, we’ll parachute in. But we’re going to get health-care reform passed for the American people.” Though most of the drama around the bill’s passage revolved around the Senate, it never could have happened without Pelosi’s determination and drive.
She did it knowing there might be a political cost, and indeed there was. Republicans gained 63 seats in the House in the 2010 midterm elections, an election in which Pelosi was a central figure. Republicans made her the subject of millions of dollars’ worth of attack ads across the country, capitalizing on their base’s visceral loathing of her and giving Peosi unusual prominence for a congressional leader.
But Pelosi believed in gaining power not for its own sake but in order to do something with it. Obamacare is part of a legacy that includes two decades of liberal policy victories, from allowing gay people to serve openly in the military to the historic climate investments of this year’s Inflation Reduction Act. “This is a very difficult job,” she told us. “You have to really know how to be a legislator.”…
Pelosi intends to spend the next two years in valedictory mode. “My life ahead is full of thank-yous,” she says, to her constituents and all the others who have supported her over the years. She does not plan to serve on any committees and she does not want to serve as a sort of shadow speaker from the sidelines. “Thanksgiving is coming,” she says. “I have no intention of being the mother-in-law in the kitchen saying, ‘My son doesn’t like the stuffing that way, this is the way we make it in our family.’ They will have their vision. They will have their plan. It’s up to the caucus to decide which way they want to go.”
There are three signatures on it. President Obama's, Vice President Biden's, and Speaker of the House Pelosi's.
Next to my two heroes (unless I'm in an interview), Sam Rayburn and Lyndon Johnson, Nancy Pelosi stands as the most influential politician of the past 100 years
— Luke Watson (@LukeWatsonCMF) November 17, 2022
She was first elected to Congress in 1987, she’s in her 18th term and is the dean of the California congressional delegation. She was elected as Whip in 2002, then a year later rose to Minority Leader — the first woman to hold those two positions.
Under her leadership, the Democrats took the majority in the House after the 2006 election. The election that brought me to Washington, DC. Until then I had only witnessed her leadership from afar. In 2007, I had a much closer seat.
During her first speakership, she delivered President Obama his legislative agenda including the ACA; Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform; Don’s Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act; ARRA; the 2010 Tax Relief Act.
She’s often praised/criticized by Republicans and Democrats for her accomplishments. But one thing that people forget about her is that she’s been a bulwark against the extremes. Indeed many in the party dislike her because she’s too liberal AND too conservative.
She opposed the Iraq war AND blocked impeachment proceedings against George Bush. She pushed for a public option AND got her caucus to universally support the ACA. She was slow to call for the impeachment of Trump but was forceful when it was clear that was the only option.
Through it all, she kept her caucus happy and unified when, let’s face it, a party that included Carol Shea-Porter, Jack Murtha, Heath Shuler, and Dennis Kucinich seems like four different parties completely. Boehner had it easy.
She faced challenges from within her party. Shuler lost to Pelosi 143-50 in 2010. Tim Ryan ran against her. He lost 134-63. A collection of the caucus gathered to discuss firing Pelosi. They couldn’t agree. And Pelosi, rightly, claimed that she would leave when she was ready.
People may not like her style, but there’s no question she knew exactly how to lead her caucus and how to make a majority.
Even in the face of opposition within her party – legislatively or otherwise.
Why is the ACA on my wall? Despite every effort from Sen. Max Baucus to gut ACA, despite Obama’s retreat at the first sign of resistance to HIS climate bill, despite the constant shouts from her party that she’s too liberal, she passed every Democrat priority she was asked to.
The ACA represents her work. Her work with liberals, moderates, and conservatives. Her ability to bring in outside groups to tell her caucus “what they need to hear.” Her ability to give her members political cover, legislative wins, and resources for re-election.
She is the most successful legislator we’ve ever seen. And her leadership should be celebrated today. Especially her decision to step aside, as she said she would, for the next Congress.
I can’t wait to see what Leader Jeffries does. But for now, let’s give three cheers for Speaker Pelosi.
— Eric Owens (@ericowensdc) November 17, 2022
Nov 2006. New member orientation, I’m sitting w my boss in the front row. Nancy Pelosi has given a speech to the incoming members, is headed to the door, stops, walks over to us, congratulates my boss, then grabs my hand & says “you ran a great campaign”
Highlight of my career
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) November 17, 2022