I have no idea what the future brings for Nancy Pelosi, but all I know is she gets to set the fucking terms.
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
All your base are belong to Tunch.
Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.
A Senator Walker would also be an insult to reason, rationality, and decency.
… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP
When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.
Come on, man.
I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.
Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.
If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.
I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.
Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.
Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.
Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.
Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.
Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.
The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.
Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.
After roe, women are no longer free.
Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.
Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.
Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll
They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.
Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.
A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.
mvr
She would be funny running rings around McCarthy, but likely he and his caucus will make plenty of their own problems without her help. She has earned whatever she chooses to do now.
Yutsano
Honestly? I could see her honouring the people who helped keep the election from being a total wipeout and letting younger* people like Hakeem Jeffries take the reins as Minority Leader. But she’ll be one phone call away.
*Younger than her anyway.
Mike in NC
At 82 she deserves a glorious retirement.
randy khan
@Yutsano:
Jeffries is, I believe 52, which is a pretty good age for being as high as he is in House leadership. Below the top 3, the Dem leadership in the House actually is fairly young, not that you’d know this from the people who say there’s no bench. And, frankly, I didn’t know until a couple of days ago when I read a comment on LGM that seemed off and did a little research.
RaflW
Please, goddess, not Steny as minority leader. That’s all I beseechingly ask.
James E Powell
Speaker Pelosi will do what she believes is best for the Democratic caucus. Because that’s what she has always done.
randy khan
The thought of Pelosi marshaling votes for discharge petitions and messing with McCarthy (or whoever replaces him when he makes his first bad misstep) with esoteric floor maneuvers warms the cockles of my heart.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I can see Pelosi becoming like Uncle Iroh to the next generation of Democratic House leadership.
Tom Q.
@RaflW: I half-believe that blocking Steny from slithering into the speakership has been much of Pelosi’s reason for staying at the top as long as she has.
I’m still disappointed the Dems couldn’t hold onto the House by a hair — fully confident Nancy could have made it tap-dance, even then — but, in real-life terms, it’s probably best for her the job isn’t there to tempt her. She’ll want to spend time with her husband, and now she’ll be free to take as much as she needs.
Omnes Omnibus
@RaflW:
That won’t happen. When Pelosi stands down as leader, there will be a changing of the guard.
HumboldtBlue
@Tom Q.:
Thanks, New York.
piratedan
@HumboldtBlue: really…? why blame the whole state, when it was Cuomo that appointed those judges (I believe) in hopes of generating some kind of bipartisan cred for higher office hopes and we all know how well that has unfolded.
tbh, I’m not all that keen on gerrymandering on the whole, but when it’s been weaponized to the extent that the GOP has used it, you can’t just sit back and completely allow the playing field to be altered.
Mai Naem mobile
I wonder if there’s anybody who’s hung around just as a member of congress after being speaker and not in elected leadership? The ones recently have all resigned or retired. The way they’re talking about Nancy Pelosi it sounds like she’s going to stick around just not as minority leader. I am guessing the Pelosis have a home in the DC area and overall are safer in DC than in CA.
HumboldtBlue
@piratedan:
I was being light-hearted, as close as we can get to non-partisan gerrymandering, the better. But, still, Maloney stings.
fake irishman
@Mai Naem mobile:
I don’t know of any speakers who have; but senior leaders sometimes do. John Dingell got washed out in a race to reclaim his Commerce and Energy gavel in 2006, then gracefully and happily settled into the back bench as the faux cranky old man/Dean of the House. JQ Adams famously went back to the House after losing the presidency. Alben Barkley got elected junior senator from Kentucky in the 1950s after he was Truman’s VP.
Gretchen
@HumboldtBlue: I like Maloney, but the way he blamed progressives like AOC made me think less of him. She won her race; you lost yours. Maybe you should be asking her for tips rather than blaming her. And squeezing Mondaire Jones out didn’t make him look good.
Hoppie
Met her back in the day when I had volunteered to help the Parren Mitchell congressional campaign (MD) and she was at the thankyou party. Wow! And this college student at least thought she was way cute. Those were the days…
Chetan Murthy
@Hoppie: with video. She’s def. easy on the eyes.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
I think whatever Pelosi’s choice, she can look back at her career and know that she did a lot of good and will be remembered as one of the most effective party leaders and Speakers in American history.
Also, from Newsweek (yes, I know):
Democrat Overturns Election Result in Recount, Beats Republican by One Vote
Every single vote counts
JCJ
A “this day in history” tells me on November 16, 2006 Nancy Pelosi became the first woman to be Speaker of the House. It goes on to say that Steny Hoyer was chosen to be majority leader against her wishes.
Chetan Murthy
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/11/21/18103325/nancy-pelosi-social-security-privatization-bush-plan
There are so many more moments. Like that iconic pic of her accusing TFG:
and the shades and red coat
ok, prolly better stop.
Anyway
I blame (all) the Dems of NY for the loss of the house. Sometimes reliably blue states don’t take redistricting as seriously as they should.
Then there’s the asymmetry of blue vs red states when it comes to process – Ohio lege ignored the state supreme court’s repeated striking down of gerrymandered maps; DeSantis unilaterally overruled the redistricting commission’s map for one more favorable to the Rs. Rethugs play hardball on this. Some Dem states are getting better but we have ways to go to catch up with the ruthless Rs
Princess
@piratedan: the rot in the Dem party seems to go deeper than Cuomo. Lots of complaints about Hochul not campaigning much, complaints that the local party itself did not do enough to win those seats.
Anyway
@Chetan Murthy:
Yes, All hail Madam Speaker Nancy Smash! We’re not worthy ….
tobie
Whatever she decides, I will admire her unendingly. From 2018-2020 the only thing that made me feel safe was knowing that Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the House.
frosty
@Princess: I get the impression (from out of state) that the NY Dem Party kind of says “Hey, the City will take care of the statewide, so we don’t have to worry about it.”
PA is starting to dig out of relying on PGH and Philly but it will be a long haul. The state lege matters.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@tobie: Exactly. She’s been wonderful. One of my favorite, if less important moments, was when she informed TFG he couldn’t give a State of the Union address while the government was shut down.
tobie
@Gretchen: I admired Maloney for that. He called a spade a spade. It’s easy to run (and run off your mouth) in a D +20 district. It’s much tougher to face the voters of Rockland County. I know the county. I grew up there. Voters will turn on a dime if they feel their property taxes are too high or the value of their homes is declining.
Fake Irishman
@Anyway: They gerrymandered the Hell out of the New York. Then a state court struck it down and replaced it with a court-drawn map. They still should have won 3-5 more seats than they did, but it wasn’t because they state ledge fell down on the job drawing districts.
Eolirin
@Fake Irishman: That map was so clearly illegal under state law that they shouldn’t have attempted it. We might have held on to just enough seats if they had run something less egregious.
Anne Laurie
To be honest… when I think about Pelosi going ‘to the back benches’, I remember that John Quincy Adams did some of his most important work (like defending the Amistad prisoners) *after* his ‘unsuccessful’ Presidential term.
If Pelosi chooses to stay after resigning her Leadership, I would expect her to remain a very effective legislator!
mrmoshpotato
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Yup. Voting actually matters! Who knew!
SectionH
@Anne Laurie: Oh yes. Long may she – do what she wants. The attack on her husband makes me incandescently angry.
LeftCoastYankee
New York City has been a one-party government for nearly 100 years. So, inside NYC whatever passed for “conservative” and “liberal” were factions of the same entity.
After WWII with the white flight to suburbia, most of those areas became Republican by default, to be able to align with rural areas to have a practical counterbalance to the Democratic power of the City.
As the national Republican party has gone bat shit crazy over the last 40 years, the suburbs (and rural areas) have become more Democratic.
When you say “Democrat” in New York, there are still old guard “machine” politicians who just happen to be in the same party with urban progressives and east coast moderates you’d expect.
And when they attack the old guard, they are not being “purity ponies” or unrealistic or whatever seems scary to moderates in other states.
If this seems overstated, imagine the editors/publishers of the NY Times who undoubtedly are registered Democrats in New York. Would you want them in leadership positions in your party?
SectionH
And I’ll add that there are a lot of younger women srsly in politics in CA – Katie Porter is Known by all of y’all, but Toni Atkins – who is President Pro Tempore of the CA state senate now, after being the majority leader of the CA Assembly (=House). This woman knows how to get things done,
She’s great. And, oh surprise, Karen Bass who just got elected to LA Mayor is Toni’s friend and mentor. Women do talk to other women, somehow. Don’t they?
Bill
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan):
My favorite was when she tore up his speech right behind him
NotoriousJRT
@Anyway: I am reminded of 2010 when – after the shellacking – there was a LOT of noise in the media that Nancy Smash should resign because so many seats were lost. I called her office to thank her for delivering the ACA and tell her she had my support. As I was leaving my message, I was shocked at the emotion that overwhelmed me. My voice was cracking as I left my message. The gist of it was, “Don’t let those dudes, who owe EVERYTHING to you run you out! Please stay and fight!” I am so thankful that she did.
SFAW
My “mind” must be a bit off-kilter. I was sitting here, thinking how interesting it would be were Lauren Boebert to — while demonstrating her latest firearm acquisition to her “friends” — accidentally shoot herself during a Blake Masters-like target practice. And also Paul Gosar, who happened to be ogling her while she was doing that. Thus requiring Jared Polis and Katie Hobbs to appoint their replacements. Maybe throw in whoever beat Maloney? Eventually ending up with 218 Dems.
Suddenly, Madam Speaker is back in the driver’s seat.
[Yes, I realize the timing doesn’t work out — Ducey is AZ gov until the next House is seated, I think — but it’s an interesting “thought” experiment.]
ETA: That said: I am REALLY going to miss her as Speaker. I was trying to think of who had been a better Speaker during my lifetime, couldn’t think of one. [I don’t know about Sam Rayburn’s record, so …]
SectionH
@Bill: Absolutely!
HumboldtBlue
“Nancy’s Future” sounds like a Preakness entry.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@SFAW: Uh, as the Speaker has noted, members of the House are never appointed, they are always elected(in a special election).
Brachiator
I have nothing but huge respect for Pelosi and wish her well, doubly so because she also has to deal with the impact of the recent insane attack on her husband. I am grateful to have seen her wise and politically astute leadership.
That said, I note that a lot of the Democratic Party leadership is old. I also note that young people, people age 18 to 29, stepped up and supported the Democrats in the midterms.
This is not to say that the current Democratic Party leadership is decrepit or even out-of-touch with voters. Nor is it the case that younger members of Congress are automatically more in tune. And I don’t want to necessarily displace anyone currently in leadership.
However, I would like to see some of the people who think they are next in line for leadership because of tenure and seniority step aside and let more junior members of Congress move into leadership positions.
Probably won’t happen. But I think this would be better for the long term prospects of the party and the country.
janesays
@RaflW: It won’t be Hoyer. Back in 2019, at the start of the last Congress, Pelosi, Hoyer, and Clyburn all committed to stepping aside from leadership at the end of two more terms – which is now. I can’t imagine Pelosi will step aside alone unless she knows Hoyer and Clyburn are also going to honor the pledge they all made together.
janesays
That’s not how it works with House vacancies. Governors appoint replacements to fill Senate vacancies, but House vacancies are filled by special elections. What governors do have a fair amount of discretion with is the scheduling of those special elections – some states giving more leeway than others.
Baud
Exactly right, John.
Scott S
From friends of mine who are active in the NY scene – fuck the machine. They would rather lose to Republicans than give Progressives an inch of power.
She was activity, early 40s, and got shoved off Brooklyn Commissions because she was too radical, and if she’s too radical, I’m terrified, because she’s not in any way form radical, just not a centrist.
Plus, she only got a call about a GOTV effort (Ie, participating in one) a week before the election.
Greg
She gets to retire when she (or the voters of her district) decide. However, if she were to retire now, I worry that the nutballs that are out there will attribute a retirement to the attack on her husband and take the message that they can get a congressperson out by threatening their families. That is a scary world.
dave319
@RaflW: Second x a million.
LiminalOwl
@Greg: This, exactly.
Geminid
@janesays: If Speaker Pelosi steps aside, I expect Hoyer and Clyburn will step aside also (as others have said here). As a practical matter, those positions are not held by right, but by vote of the Caucus. Even if Hoyer wanted to stick around he’d need to win a majority in a caucus vote.
I think they all will step aside, though. They have to someday, and there are good reasons to make it now. The Caucus has been very cohesive since the blowup over emergency border funding in July, 2019. The next few years could challenge that unity, though, and I think it’s best to get a new team in now.
And while I believe Joe Biden will win reelection, that’s not a cinch. A younger House leadership team can provide continuity through what could be a either stressful time or, with a return to a House Majority and a Democratic President, a time of opportunity
If Speaker Pelosi and the others announce they will not stand for leadership posts, there will be a big fight in the media and on Twitter. Some people thrive on “Democrats in Disarray” stories, and others will push “centrist versus progressive” narratives.
But I expect the second three ranking members will win election to the the top three posts without much of a struggle, in contrast to a war of words outside the caucus. That would be Hakeem Jeffries (NY), Katherine Rice (MA), and Pete Aguilar (CA). Jeffries is 52 years old, Rice 59, and Aguilar 42. They will be selected because of merit, not seniority.
I’ve not followed the Rice and Aguilar very closely, but I have followed Jeffries and I believe he will not disappoint. I think Jeffries is one of the most talented politicians in America. He’s also a hard worker, which is as or even more important. Jeffries had only completed 3 terms when his peers elected him Caucus Chirman four years ago. They must have liked what they saw, and leadership must have also.
oldster
@Chetan Murthy:
She was a very cute kid in that video, and she still is very cute, if you have eyes of the right age.
Sadly, being physically attractive is a minimum requirement for political participation, if you are a woman.
There are a lot of ugly guys in politics. Very very few ugly women.
And that’s a problem right there.
(Which will not be made better by people saying, “but what about politician X, who is an ugly woman?” Not helping.)
rikyrah
Truth, Cole👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
SFAW
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
@janesays:
Which is why “mind” was in quotation marks.
I had completely forgotten that part, mashing Senators and Reps together. Thanks for the corrections.
Does this lack of clue mean I can now run Twitter?
topclimber
@HumboldtBlue: And thanks California, where at least three seats went to the GOP because Dems did not turn anywhere close to 2020. Yeah, it’s a midterm, blah blah blah but did these folks not get the memo about Dobbs and 1/6?
JMG
Could Democrats have done better in New York and California? Unquestionably. But I think we should recognize that it is much much harder to turn out your voters in a midterm when it seems as if the top of the ticket races are in the bag. Turnout was really low here in Massachusetts, because everyone knew the outcome long before voting started.
Geminid
@topclimber: That was a close result in the newly drawn California 41st CD. I’m hoping Mr. Rollins takes another shot at Ken Calvert in 2024. I don’t expect Calvert’s House Majority to cover itself in glory in the next Congress and I think Calverts reputation will take a hit. Also, this will be a Presidential year electorate that should be to Democrats’ advantage.
The 41st CD is part of interior Southern California, and includes the City of Palm Springs.
Matt McIrvin
@JMG: The top-of-the-ticket race was very much not in the bag in New York. That was probably what turned out the Republicans.
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: New York’s Republicans were hungry. I saw the same with Virginia Republicans in last year’s Governor’s race.
artem1s
The speculation will be endless until she announces what she has decided to do. In any case, I trust her to already have a plan in place and wrangle the leadership so the Dems are in the strongest position they can be. Despite and maybe because of what happened to Paul, I kind of expect her to be a force in the party no matter what. I guess it depends on who her and Hoyer’s successors would be. After the last few years I hope they have the sense to keep touch with her as a shadow leader for as long as she is willing to stick around.
Dream scenario – Outlandish dream scenario – would love to see her wrangle some Nice Polite Republican votes away from the cray-cray party during Speaker vote. Wouldn’t that put the terror into McQuarthy? I know it’s never been done, but she’s had a lot of first – wouldn’t it be glorious if she Nancy Smash’ed that one into history?
AnonPhenom
Re: “what could’a happened in NY”
This is a dead thread so I won’t waste many pixels except to say: google Jay Jabobs the NY Dem Party Chair. The man is a disaster, & unlike Cuomo, still in a position of power. If NY is going to improve, start there.
Matt McIrvin
@Greg: If she does decide to step down, she could presumably point to the fact that she announced an intention to do so years ago as an indication that this was not a result of the attack.
AnonPhenom
@AnonPhenom:
Typo: *Jay Jacobs
Cameron
@fake irishman: John Tyler also went back to the House. Of course, it was the Confederate House, but……
Wanderer
Nancy Pelosi’s future is hers to decide and whatever her decision I will be eternally grateful for the brilliant leadership she has given all these years. Thank you Madam Speaker.
davecb
@Mai Naem mobile:
British and Canadian Prime Ministers traditionally serve on after a defeat… and sometimes stage a comeback
Geminid
@artem1s: Nebraska Rep, Don Bacon has said he would be open to voting for a Democratic Speaker. He did not make an unqualified commitment, though, The likelier scenario is that the Republicans will elect a Speaker, but that’s not a sure thing.
Bacon won his Omaha-based seat in 2014 (I think). His last three elections have been close. He generally votes with his caucus, but he did defect on the Infrastructure Bill, and may have on the CHIPS+ bill.
SFAW
Frankly, I don’t think it really matters whether Speaker Pelosi or Qevin McQarthy is the Speaker. I’m sure the Republican House will take up important, American-helping legislation as the first order of business.
For example, TPM tells me that incoming Judiciary chairman, Gym Jordan (R-Dinerstan), has already announced that there will be Hunter Biden hearings “until the Twelfth of Never, and that’s a long, long time.”
Starfish
@SectionH: A lot of people are so very tired of Katie Porter’s Schtick already.
Oh, let us quiz some CEO on stuff that he does not know to make him look out of touch. Oh, I know! The white board! She is that interviewer that everyone hated the most, and everyone is going to remember that when they are searching for jobs as the layoffs happen.
Geminid
@SFAW: House Republicans will certainly try to produce a lot of “Sound and Fury” in the upcoming Congress.
But what will it signify? Very possibly the loss of 30 seats in 2024.
SFAW
As the saying goes: From your keyboard to FSM’s
oreckiettyorchitteyetorechiteteear-like noodle-y appendages.Qrop Non Sequitur
When that stuff he doesn’t know pertains to whether his employees can live on their pay, this is valid. If the job creators are creating jobs that people can’t live on; those aren’t jobs, they’re glorified hobbies.
Those employees should be laying themselves off en masse. Problem us they don’t have better prospects because the culture of low pay affects all employers to the benefit of their owners and top managers.
We need to get ourselves where businesses recognize that shareholders aren’t the only stakeholders.
Dadadadadadada
@SFAW: Governors appoint replacement Senators, not replacement Reps. When a Rep leaves office mid-term, the seat just stays empty until a special election or a normal election.
Bill Arnold
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Very high probability that that election was lost by Republicans because Republicans chose to kill Republican voters with COVID-19 for … political gain.
There may be other causes, but that margin is smaller than the differential partisan COVID-19 kill rate, given the vote counts.