“I think you want to enjoy being old. I don’t think you want to spend your final days fighting with Kevin McCarthy about how many seats you get on Appropriations.” https://t.co/tHzKZBfVzY
— Nancy Cook (@nancook) January 21, 2023
Surprising narrator, still a fun read. Gift (unpaywalled) read:
…I went to lunch with Nancy Pelosi at the Four Seasons to find out how she was faring, now that she has gone from being one of the most powerful women in the world — second in line to the presidency — and one of the most formidable speakers in American history to a mere House backbencher.
I was expecting King Lear, howling at the storm, but I found Gene Kelly, singing in the rain. Pelosi was not crying in her soup. She was basking as she scarfed down French fries, a truffle-butter roll and chocolate-covered macadamia nuts — all before the main course. She was literally in the pink, ablaze in a hot-pink pantsuit and matching Jimmy Choo stilettos, shooting the breeze about Broadway, music and sports. Showing off her four-inch heels, the 82-year-old said, “I highly recommend suede because it’s like a bedroom slipper.”
Fans dropped by our booth to thank Pelosi, and women in the restaurant gave me thumbs-ups, simply because I was sitting with her.
“I wonder, Maureen, girl to girl, I keep thinking I should feel a little more, I don’t know,” she hesitated, looking for the right word. Over the course of our conversation, she said the word was “regretful,” and she thought about it in church, and during morning and night prayers, but she just wasn’t feeling it. “It’s just the time, and that’s it. Upward and onward. I’m thrilled with the transition. I think it was beautiful.”…
Pelosi said she found it “particularly concerning” when McCarthy “went up to Gaetz on the floor. That seemed to be unnecessary.” She said, why not “work it out in the bathroom” or some other private space. “To me, it was indicative of the disrespect they had for the Congress of the United States, that they would not have had their act together. It was a cause of wonder that they had to take 15 votes. How does that bode for what comes next?”
Pelosi did not accept an invitation to sit with her protégé, the new minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, for the speaker votes. She did not want to be the Godfather whispering in the ear of Michael Corleone. She chose to sit near the back with her old friends in the California delegation, Eshoo, Doris Matsui and Mike Thompson…
[I don’t see Kevin McCarthy making ‘jokes’ about threatening Jeffries with his mighty gavel — Squeaker McCarthy would worry that his body might never be found. Kev is not a smart man; doubt that, even today, he understands just how thoroughly Speaker Pelosi pantsed him, time & again.]
Eshoo said Pelosi does not need to cling because her tenure was “jaw-dropping with a real sense of awe about the place and who came before us.” Her reputation, Eshoo said, “will stand the way the Washington Monument stands. They can’t chisel away at that.”…
I asked Pelosi how the savage attack on her husband of nearly 60 years, Paul, had affected her decision to step down. The beating with a hammer by a QAnon believer left him looking like Frankenstein under his dashing hat, Alexandra said, and with an incapacitated hand that the doctors thought he might lose. His daughter said he has handled it gracefully because he’s “a really cool cat.”
“I was probably going to go anyway,” Nancy Pelosi said. But, she added, “say we won by 20 votes and it was a big thing, I might have stayed. It’s true that I had two thoughts in mind when I went to the floor, to stay or not to stay. It was time to move on.”
She said that in 2016: “If Hillary had won, I could have left. But I was not going to let Donald Trump have his way with the government.” She was also irritated that she was constantly asked if she was too old for the job when Mitch McConnell, who’s about the same age, wasn’t…
As we left the Four Seasons, Pelosi showed me a turquoise ring she was wearing given to her by Afghan female artisans and said she “would like to see Congress be a stronger voice for women in the world.” She also said she would like to help the women in Congress in any way she could.
Won’t she still be a celebrity, even without her old title and big staff and wide balcony?
“I was a woman of great power, and now I’ll be a woman of great influence,” she said. “Whatever that happens to be.”
Baud
You ain’t kidding.
schrodingers_cat
NP rocks.
rikyrah
Nancy Smash rocks🤗🤗🤗
Professor Bigfoot
If she were a bit more foul-mouthed, she could be Chrisjen Avasarala(from The Expanse).😉
What an awesome woman, and brilliant leader. May she enjoy the hell out of the time she has left with us.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: You were right that the air fryer is a game changer for me.
From the last thread:
Going to make naan* in the airfryer to go along with palak paneer and dhaba chicken that I made yesterday.
Dhabas are no fuss eateries along the highways in north India. They are known for their delicious and spicy food.
(* taking a short cut and using ready made pizza dough from the grocery store, paneer was also store brought.)
ETA: Has anyone baked in their air fryer. I am going to attempt making cake.
trollhattan
Nancy SMASH will find ways to stay engaged and relevant. Cat-herding I can easily believe is draining, sometimes to the extreme.
The most powerful woman in US political history, and we had her when she mattered most.
dmsilev
Truth. She has one hell of a legacy as Speaker.
Jeffrey
@Professor Bigfoot: I just rewatched all of The Expanse. I wonder how Shohreh Aghdashloo who plays Avasarala felt about swearing like a sailor. She doesn’t seem the type to use the language.
Kent
@trollhattan: Also the most underestimated.
Darkrose
Can I tell you how much I love her sitting with my rep Doris? Italian grandma and Japanese grandma FTW!
Ohio Mom
I read that column when it first came out and thought, Pelosi is so talented, or maybe the word is magical, that she made possible a Maureen Dowd column I enjoyed and read all of.
My other thought was, “French fries, truffle-butter roll and chocolate-covered macadamia nuts — all before the main course“? Adding to that what I’ve read elsewhere, that Pelosi often has chocolate ice cream for breakfast and hot dogs for lunch in the Congressional lunchroom, and maybe everything we’ve been told about eating healthily is a lie.
Nicole
Oh, it brings me joy to see her living her best life. Also, now I want a truffle-butter roll.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Ohio Mom: Yeah, but you just know she’s one of those weirdos who thinks a pint of ice cream contains more than one serving.
What?
Betty
If I were taking a backseat as Nancy is doing, I would certainly dish the four inch heels. I guess she wants to maintain her stylish image.
Mart
Assume that was the Four Seasons adjacent to the porn shop?
John S.
@Jeffrey: Shohreh Aghdashloo is amazing as Avasarala. She deserved a lot more credit for that role.
KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))
Nancy is the most powerful, influential woman in US political history, and also she has the MOST beautiful coats! I seriously covet this soft pink coat, and that red coat she wears in the iconic photo of her striding out of Congress in shades with her hands in her pockets.
OK, shallow, I know. She has been a trailblazer and, probably, the most powerful and effective Speaker in a century.
But damn! The woman can dress!
Betty Cracker
It was time to pass the baton, but it will never not be infuriating that a violent QAnon loser was a factor in the decision. History turns on random creeps all the time, but it’s still appalling when you see it happen. I hope that shithead rots in jail for the rest of his miserable life.
zhena gogolia
@KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager)): In the full-length picture in my paper copy of the NYT, she also has on pale-blue pants with knife-edge creases in them. I don’t know how she does it.
ETA: I see from the digital picture that they’re actually royal blue, not pale blue as in my crappily printed paper newspaper.
oatler
@Jeffrey:
“Eat poo-poos, Brett.”
different-church-lady
@Ohio Mom: She must have the metabolism of a hummingbird.
dmsilev
@different-church-lady: Hopefully without the insane level of territorial aggression.
schrodingers_cat
@KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager)): I was going to say the same thing. I love her coats and her style in general.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: I think that Speaker Pelosi had made her mind up before Paul Pelosi was attacked.
But yes, someone who hacks up a senior with a hammer should get the maximum sentence with enhancements. Some people should be incarcerated and this guy is one of them.
kindness
Nancy Smash has no fu**s left to give. It’s wonderful. She deserves every bit of it.
MomSense
@schrodingers_cat:
No, but the air fryer is the best way to cook salmon.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@oatler: Speaking of Bretts….. surprised this is getting more attention
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat:
I have learned how to make easy cobbler. (Blackberry, or peach)
If I don’t have store bought pastry, I will use cake mix, combined with oatmeal, put the pads of butter on top. If only the cake mix, too mushy.
I did make chess pies (a custard type pie)in the air fryer. I cooked them on 350 for the first one…burned the top.
But, 45 minutes at 340 was perfection.
Next up, brownies
guachi
Saw this line…
…and I knew it had to be Maureen Down. It reads just like a DougJBalloon parody special. It was! It was Maureen Dowd. Doug J mocks her so well.
HinTN
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That, in and of itself, needs to be investigated
ETA: Can an internal complaint to the IG kick that off?
Steeplejack
News alert:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@HinTN: the linked article is very much a movie review, but
there might now be conflicts between the Executive and the Judicial branches? fukifino
ETA: Thinking back, I seem to recall the limited scope and time of the investigation was part of the deal between Jeff Flake, who was very emo about it all, and Chris Coons. But there’s a lot of sewage under the bridge since then
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack: papering the walls with them, yet.
karen marie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It was known at the time that the FBI couldn’t investigate without specific direction from the WH – which is what happened. The WH directed the FBI to do a very narrow and limited investigation, giving the WH – and Republicans – the ability to blow smoke up everyone’s ass and claim there had been a “full” investigation. This is not new information. The new part is having more people on the record with regard to Kavanaugh’s grab-ass ways.
Motivated Seller
Pelosi puff piece aside, Maureen Dowd is a worthless journalist. I guess The Former Guy stopped returning her calls, so she had to attach her lamprey’s kiss on some other warm body.
David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
What a woman
MomSense
@Steeplejack:
HA!!
Gvg
@HinTN: They were ordered not to. It came out at the time. Their orders pretty much made the investigation predetermined useless but looked like they were doing something. I think it was the AG, the first one, gave secret orders limiting the investigation and it leaked or Congress asked the details and got them but they couldn’t get them changed…this was published while the investigation was going on. In the Post and I think the NYTs.
jnfr
I love Nancy Pelosi so much. I have such a deep respect and admiration for how she has done this incredibly difficult job, and all through the Trump years too. I love to see her happy now.
Baud
@David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
I hate it.
Steeplejack
@Baud:
On the other hand, I would hate to go through life as Dick Armey.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Steeplejack:
The Goon Show: The Silver Dubloons
lowtechcyclist
@rikyrah:
Cobbler is easy, that’s the great thing about it. Here’s Aunt Ibbie Stringfellow’s recipe:
1) Have the fruit (peaches, blackberries, guava, whatever!) ready: rinsed off, and sliced if it needs slicing.
2) Mix: 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 Tbsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt. Once they’re mixed, mix in 1/2 cup milk and 1/4 cup vegetable oil.
3) Put the fruit in an 8″x8″ baking dish, pour the stuff from (2) over it, bake at 350º for ~40 minutes.
That’s it. I don’t do much baking, but even I can handle this simple a recipe.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: In case it makes you feel any better, my theory is that Nancy SMASH was going to step away completely and not stay in Congress. But she was not going to let it look like they pushed her out, so she is staying in congress for one more term.
She said the attack absolutely influenced her decision. That’s how I believe it influenced her.
Mike in NC
Nancy Pelosi should (and probably does) consider the two impeachments of Putin’s Puppet the highlight of her distinguished career.
Betty Cracker
@guachi: Dowd is THE WORST. Her punishment for the relentless banality is that she has to be Dowd. That must suck!
@WaterGirl: Good point — thanks! I just hate that the rat bastard had any influence at all, you know?
KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))
@zhena gogolia: She’s just so (apparently) easily elegant! I mean, it can’t be easy to look that elegant all the time, any more than it can be easy to corral the Democratic caucus and get them all to vote on must-pass legislation. But she manages, every day. She’s a remarkable woman.
David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Nancy turns 83 in March. She’s been in Congress 36 years. She would be 85 at the start of a next term. From a practical point, even if we had retained Congress I think this would have been her last term.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: I’m very surprised she said that about being unsure about stepping down. I thought it was pretty well established that was her plan after the mid-terms
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betty Cracker: Being Dowd is both her crime and her punishment
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: I know.
Frankensteinbeck
@Baud:
Thank God you’re pretty.
James E Powell
@WaterGirl:
Reminds me a bit of Dolly Parton’s interview with Barbara Walters – “I’m sure of myself”
apocalipstick
Just a perfect example of how useless and tone-deaf Dowd is. Anyone who thinks Nancy Smash will be ‘raging like King Lear’ hasn’t paid a damn bit of attention for the last twenty years.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
To be fair, she did her job, McConnell, not so much.
Anyway
Another fan of Madame Speaker’s effortless, elegant style here. Glad she’s getting a well-deserved victory lap for an amazing career!
Fake Irishman
@KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager)):
Nothing at all shallow about appreciating clothes. That coat she wore when she strode out of that meeting with Trump in the iconic photo (I love how she is just casually putting on her sunglasses) was reissued for sale because the company that made it got so many inquiries about it. (I think it had been discontinued for several years.
Hell, even I thought to myself— an acolyte of the Sherrod Brown school of fashion— that that coat was amazing when I saw the photo.
El Muneco
@HinTN: I’m not sure if the FBI “investigation” of Kavanaugh was a drunk looking for their keys underneath the lamppost or was carefully orchestrated to look only where they were guaranteed not to find anything. But I know which way to bet.
Fake Irishman
@Mike in NC:
Actually, I don’t think she’d agree. I suspect she’d probably say the ACA and the IRA are her two biggest ones, with her defense of Social Security (her first big win as minority leader) as another highlight.
I think the sweep of history is giving us an appreciation for how good she, Harry Reid, and Obama were at their jobs, and we’re already appreciative of how good she, Schumer and Biden were/are at theirs.
Matt
It’ll be commemorated with a plaque on the side of an cremation oven in the reeducation camps: “She lost the country to fascism, but at least the hippies didn’t win”
Professor Bigfoot
@Jeffrey: this is way late so you probably won’t see it… but the way she leaned into “…wherever I Goddamn like…” was soo awesome…