Great read by @markzbarabak about the former House Speaker who dances in four-inch heels in the wings of Grateful Dead shows: Column: Nancy Pelosi on Dylan, the Grateful Dead, a wild night in Argentina — and the healing power of music https://t.co/lPsZQgEvKr
— Seema (@LATSeema) August 29, 2023
It was a partly cloudy July night and temperatures were falling as Dead & Co. played before tens of thousands of fans in San Francisco, ancestral home of the band’s legendary forebear, the Grateful Dead.
Typical summer weather in the city, and Nancy Pelosi knew what to do.
Socks, she told the Birkenstock-shod guitarist on a visit backstage. And a hat.
It may be easier to picture the former speaker, still one of America’s most influential women, surrounded by suits and wingtips than beads and sandals. But Pelosi, who grew up listening to opera waft through the streets of Baltimore’s Little Italy, is a genuine tie-dyed in the wool Deadhead, as cultists and aficionados of the group are known.
She’s friends with Weir and drummer Mickey Hart, having seen the Dead and assorted iterations more times than she remembers. On several occasions, the elegantly styled lawmaker has been seen dancing in the wings, 4-inch heels and all.
It wasn’t certain she’d make the band’s valedictory performance that night, one of the last of Dead & Co.’s recently concluded farewell tour. The House of Representatives was pitching another fit, with balky Republicans acting up, must-pass legislation stalled and restless lawmakers anxiously eyeing the exits.
But in the end, the House approved the necessary defense spending bill with time to spare and Pelosi easily made it home for the Friday night show, mingling with the band and scoring the evening’s set list as a souvenir.
When Weir returned for the second half he was still sockless.
But he had on a hat…
(A smart lad listens to his nonna.)
“They’re wonderful musicians,” Pelosi said of the Dead and company, putting a lie to the notion — propounded mostly by haters — that the group’s kaleidoscopic catalog can only be enjoyed in a drunken stupor or chemically induced haze. (Pelosi doesn’t drink and has never used drugs.) “It’s great music.”…
Perusing the menu at San Francisco’s Delancey Street Restaurant — a favorite of local politicians, staffed by ex-convicts and recovering addicts — Pelosi savors the freedom of life as just another member of the House.
“You have to remember,” she says, “that for 20 years, either as speaker or [minority] leader, I was responsible for everything that happened on the floor … in terms of what happened with the Democrats … and I didn’t even realize that it was a burden until it was gone and I was like, ‘Oh, my God. What a relief.’ ”…
“I still, obviously, take an interest in the legislation,” Pelosi goes on, “and I still raise money for the Democrats,” though not the $1 million a day she pulled in as speaker. “It’s a completely different story.”…
“Liberated” and “emancipated” are words Pelosi often uses in her new incarnation. She’s started on a book — not a memoir, but an account of certain decisions…
Not gonna lie, I’ll put my name down for a preorder.
Part of a ‘savvy’ update from the ever-savvy Puck:
No Senioritis for Pelosi: One of the more batted-around questions in Democratic politics is how involved Nancy Pelosi is in raising money for colleagues, after passing her rolodex to Hakeem Jeffries in January. In fact, a glance at her campaign and leadership PAC finance reports shows the speaker emeritus is still a surprisingly active rainmaker. Pelosi has donated to about 60 House Democratic incumbents so far this year, ranging from safe members like Eric Swalwell to freshmen still getting their political apparatuses set up, like Jasmine Crockett, to nearly all of the vulnerable Democratic members known as “Frontliners.”
Pelosi also sent cash to four House Democrats who are running for Senate: Colin Allred, Ruben Gallego, Lisa Blunt Rochester and Adam Schiff. But Schiff is still her clear favorite of the bunch, as she gave a separate $100,000 to an independent expenditure called “Standing Strong PAC” that was formed solely to back Schiff’s California Senate campaign. That race includes two of Pelosi’s California delegation members, Barbara Lee and Katie Porter. F.E.C. records also show Pelosi transferred about $1.2 million to groups focused on redistricting, which remains a live issue amid litigation in New York, North Carolina and several Southern states.
Early each cycle, leadership in both House caucuses set internal fundraising expectations for members (especially the ones who don’t have to worry about reelection) based mostly on leadership positions and committee assignments. Per D.C.C.C. records, Pelosi has already well surpassed Democratic expectations. She’s met the $500,000 in dues the D.C.C.C. requested of her, and has raised $6.4 million in direct contributions to the committee, far beyond the $1 million goal set for her. The D.C.C.C tally calculates she has donated $989,000 to Democratic House candidates in competitive races…
On top of that Pelosi has spent and has cash on hand in her treasury $5,673,722.40, Sanders $37,964,112.82 – almost SEVEN times Pelosi!
For the record, Pelosi's Congressional District in CA has more constituents than Sanders STATE of VT.
What is he doing with all that cash?
— New Yorker ???? ???? ???? (@ThomB01) September 10, 2023
mrmoshpotato
P-R-E-A-C-H!
H.E.Wolf
@mrmoshpotato: Amen.
Baud
@mrmoshpotato:
Yes, I’ve been beating that drum for a while now. Certain people are always excluded from the age debate, which reveals to me that the debate as a whole is manufactured, even if particular individuals are sincere in their views.
Rusty
Also, why the hell is Sanders sitting on $37M in campaign funds? It’s an obscene amount for the size of the state and the reality that his seat is safe. He really is ineffective at his job, lots of talk about issues but almost nothing to make them happen.
Nukular Biskits
I love NANCY SMASH!
Baud
@Rusty:
He’s an independent. His job is not to help Democrats. Maybe he chooses to sometimes, but he has no responsibility to the group.
Anne Laurie
My (probably prejudiced) guess? The law allows politicians a lot of financial leeway around ‘campaigning’ — depends on the exact location, but often politicians can legally use those funds for their own living expenses and those of their spouse / family, personal travel (‘visiting constituents’ and/or ‘fact-finding’), paid staffers and ‘foundations’ (great place to stash otherwise unemployable relatives or the failbabies of cronies & donors), publishing & bulk purchases of memoirs, etc. It’s well known as one of the last great bulwarks of old-fashioned political patronage, especially for pols who didn’t come from money themselves.
In some states — can’t be arsed to google — a politician who announces they’re not running for reelection has to provide an accounting of those funds. In others, they get to walk away with whatever hasn’t been spent yet. Since Sen. Sanders obviously enjoys what he’s doing, he has very little incentive to step back and let rude outsiders sniff through his books, either way.
(And, of course, his lady wife & original patron have even less!)
lowtechcyclist
@Rusty:
@Baud:
Sure, maybe no official responsibility.
But Bernie either believes that progress towards his goals would best be served by Democratic control of Congress, or he believes that they would be better served by Republicans being in a position where they can block all Dem legislation.
If the former, he should put that money to work. If the latter, he should fucking say so out loud.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
People who believe in revolution don’t believe in progress. Progress is the enemy of revolution because it dampens the revolutionary spirit.
BellyCat
Sanders always struck me as an inverse Trump. Separated at birth?
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Does he believe in revolution? Not that he’s doing much to foment revolution from his comfortable perch in the U.S. Senate, but again, if he believes in revolution rather than progress through legislation, he should fucking say so.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
Both should retire in order to set examples to the others that none of them are personally indispensable, and that the road should be cleared by people at the twilight of life for people with a future stake in society.
She mentored Hakeem already, and there are telephones and her closest staffers to guide – besides, he’ll want to do things his own way.
Whimpering about the retirement of older politicians is akin to Grandma getting upset that none of the grandkids want her Christmas ribbon candy bowl and fine china, or granddad being angry that “none o’ them younguns like to sit at a pond to go fishin’ with a cane pole no more.” It was a style and thing once – lighten up and let the young live their lives by their rules, tastes and preferences.
Baud
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
No one would whimper if any of them chose to retire. And it’s great that you’re principled about it, but most aren’t.
It reminds me about my belief that only about 10% of libertarians actually believe in libertarianism.
Princess
Good for her.
I’m as ageist as they come and I’ve always thought that “age is just a number thing” is hooey, but I’m smart enough to realize it’s an individual thing and Pelosi is clearly still close to the top of her powers, Biden is fit and sharp…and Trump is terrified to be on a debate stage even with the pack of losers the GOP has thrown up this year. And DiFi had no business running for senate last time and the people who screamed ageist when they was pointed out can bite me.
So, it varies. The challenge for us is we can tell when our family and friends and colleagues are slipping but we don’t have that knowledge of politicians and they and those around them lie to us about how they’re doing. And I’m talking about the politicians who are on our side.
NotMax
Socks with Birkenstocks?
The horror, the horror.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Baud:
As one acquaintance who was SSPX curious and really into conservative Catholicism as expressed by Ratzinger and the USCCB said, his libertarianism is rooted in his notion that his liberty is in “choosing to live in a society that ordered the the way that it should be”, which included no contraception, no abortion, only begrudging fault-based divorce, and criminalizing homosexual behavior, with healthy sneers in the direction of cohabitation and unwed births.
So basically Franco’s Spain, Pinochet’s Chile, Savonarola’s Firenze…
He’s better now, but damn – that was hard to take.
Baud
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
Freedom is just another word for nothing left for anyone else to lose….
In fairness, most conservatives these days aren’t into conserving things either.
Geminid
@BellyCat: Sanders and Trump really are opposites in many ways. They have few things in common. Both were high school atheletes. Sanders played quarterback for James Madison High School in Brooklyn (which happens to be Chuck Schumer’s alma mater). And both Trump and Sanders managed to avoid the draft during the Vietnam War.
Trump’s father was a real estate baron, while Sanders’ was a paint salesman. Both earned college degrees, but afterwards Trump’s achieved success (of sorts) and notoriety in real estate, while Sanders lived in relative obscurity in Vermont until he won a race for Mayor of Burlington in the 1980s.
Sanders was active in Vermont politics in the1970s, crisscrossing the state (in a beatup Volkswagon of course) to promote a Vermont third party which never really got off the ground. But as a self-described Socialist Mayor he became a minor star, and then a bigger one as U.S. Representative and Senator.
This success might not have been anticipated by the people he met in during his 1970s peregrinations, but I suspect Sanders always believed in Sanders. After all, he’d been a quarterback in high school, not a lineman.
Now, I guess you could say that next year will be both men’s political “last hurrah.” Trump’s will play out against a backdrop of criminal prosecutions, with a Republican Party gone feral in the foreground. It will dominate many a news cycle.
Sanders’ campaign will get little attention, I think. He’ll be the presumptive winner, and his national importance has faded along with his insurgency within the Democratic Party. If the Democrats can regain a “trifeca,” Sanders will have a role in formulating progressive legislation, but likely as a team player. He’ll get to bark out some signals, but Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden have become adept at wrangling the old quarterback and they know that his bark is worse than his bite.
BretH
@Baud: people tend to believe different things once they grow up.
Tony Jay
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
The top-lip-only moustache is making a comeback amongst young men. Its afficionados are uniform in looking a lot less like Errol Flynn and a lot more like the kind of lonely accountant you’d find frequenting the 2.30pm shift at Red Pepper’s Cocktail Lounge, the one called Larry who sits at the end of the bar nursing a wine and soda while he waits to see if that pretty young dancer he likes is going to give a performance today and if she’ll smile at him again like she did last month.
Sometimes the old owe the young their silence, but sometimes the old owe the young a stern word in their ear.
Matt McIrvin
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: True freedom includes the freedom to remove everyone else’s freedom!
NotMax
@Tony Jay
It’s like sitting at one of those mechanized sushi bars. Wait long enough and everything comes around again.
satby
OT, but interesting: How Tall Was Jesus? Or measurement and the making of the modern world.
NotMax
@satby
Six-three and 215 pounds?
//
satby
@NotMax: no, that’s someone who just thinks he’s the Second Coming.
evodevo
@NotMax: LOLOLOL…just like his MAGAt followers…
Geminid
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: The controversy over the older politicians tendsxto obscure all the promising younger Democrats entering Congress. Last year’s House Class includes 8 members 39 and younger out of 31 Democrats. Fourteen more are in their 40s. Considering the experience most bring to the table as mayors or state legislators, that seems to me to be a good age for the job.
One of this group, Morgan McGarvey, is 43 and represents a district near you. Another, Nikki Budzinski is 46, and represents WaterGirl’s district. Budzinski is one the few freshman Reps who’s not held public office before, but in ways she is one the most politically experienced. Both McGarvey and Budzinski keep a low profile outside their districts, but I think we may hear a lot more from them as the decade progresses.
Geminid
@Tony Jay: I only now learned that Bernie Sanders has an an older brother who has been active in British politics. Larry Sanders was a lecturer at Oxford and was a Labour Party activist until 2001 when, disgusted by Tony Blair’s centrism, he defected to the UK’s Green Party. He waged an unsuccessful race for the EU Parliament as a Green.
satby
The age thing is a vexed question for me. I normally fall slightly on the side of older people mentoring and then making way for younger people; but obvious exceptions like Biden and Pelosi are why I don’t believe in mandatory age limits. I’ve known plenty of healthy, vibrant people who’ve suddenly dropped dead in their 40s and 50s to understand that can happen at any age. And old people still downhill skiing in their mid-80s, in better physical shape than me.
So, as with so many things in life, I’m now just MYOBing discussions of other people’s age and abilities. Not just aged politicians cling to jobs they can’t perform, I’m surrounded by the same in as insignificant of a place as the farmers market. Performance is what matters, not age per se.
Tony Jay
@Geminid:
Well, I did not know that. You’d think the FTF Guardian would have put him on retainer as their resident “Dose Demz R Doin It Rong!!” columnist, or at least a back-up to Max Blumenthal.
Tony Jay
@NotMax:
With more tassels and less seaweed.
Hopefully.
sab
@satby: Also, Biden and Pelosi have shifted rhe overton window back to where it was in my youth, and nobody can say that they have “abandoned” Democratic or traditional American values, because they’ve been around forever and really haven’t changed their values much.
AOC we can harumph and say she’s so young she doesn’t understand how things work. Not so with Biden and Pelosi.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Geminid:
While I live in Babyface Thomas Massie’s district (ugh), I commute to work in McGarvey’s district. McGarvey (who I do not personally know like I did John Yarmuth, his son and his daughter-in-law) seems to be much more timid as a pol than John, but he may turn into a surprise.
I guess my problem is that now that I’m in my early 60s, the big political leaders (both liberal and conservative) continue to skew much older than me, and I don’t believe that to always have been be the case. Obama thrilled me because it was finally a guy in my age and that I had cultural touchstones in common with, and he was really good in office.
Dont get me wrong – I think Biden has done a phenomenal job and I’ve enjoyed his presidency a lot despite his age. It’s just that constant, persistent leadership by folks in their 70s and 80s has ossified the country into a pattern of a very nasty pattern of perpetual conflict over same conflicts of the 1960s, and I don’t feel like that’s been even remotely healthy socially or politically.
Omnes Omnibus
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: You are aware that Pelosi is no longer in leadership, right?
Baud
Pelosi raises $365 million a year for Dems as speaker? Does that seem off to anyone else?
Another Scott
@Baud: I ass-u-me that the days counted are days when she’s attending fundraisers.
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
I noticed that the list of House members whose Senate campaigns Pelosi supports-Gallego, Allred, Rochester and Schiff- does not include a 5th Senate candidate: David Trone.
Maryland Congressman Trone is seeking the seat held by retiring Senator Ben Cardin. At 67, Trone seems a little old for the job, although 76 year-old freshman Senator Peter Welch might dispute that. Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks is the likelier nominee, I think. At age 52, Alsobrooks is the more experienced. Trone has represented his Western Maryland disticts ~750,000 residents in Congress for two terms. Alsobrooks is in her 2nd 4-year term as her county’s highest elected official, and is the chief executive governing almost 1 million people. I think she will bring a lot to the Senate.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Omnes Omnibus:
I am. I also think it likely that a younger, talented San Franciscan exists, is under 45, is at a good place in life so as to take up the mantle of being a house member, and could benefit now from a Pelosi endorsement to get into office and begin development of the connections and institutional knowledge that can make him or her an effective and productive member, leader and mentor for the next generation.
Omnes Omnibus
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
A movement toward youth is definitely a good thing, and the Democrats are making it. The new leadership group is significantly younger than the group it replaces. Lots of Dems in their 30s are being elected. I don’t think it is necessary to toss aside a politician of Pelosi’s caliber to speed that process along. When she retires completely in a couple of years, there will be talented younger person to take her place. Your mileage clearly varies.
Bupalos
@satby: I think way too much of this coversation hinges on “performance” and not enough on representation. The former tweaks political outcomes within given political boundaries, the later can change those boundaries.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bupalos:
Are we back to your democracy isn’t supposed to provide good governance theory again?
Geminid
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: Talented San Francisco Democrats will get their chances in 2026.
Bupalos
While I land on the same side of the age debate for Sanders, it’s also silly to do that kind of x=y therefore z=misogyny reasoning. Sanders is a different politician and the last national one I can think of to stand for a bonafide youth movement and radical positions that reject some of the satisfied bipartisan staus quo. One doesn’t have to be a bernista to note that there are vast differences in constituency and representation between the pragmatic macher Pelosi and firebrand Bernie. You can’t x=y them.
All that said, also and moreso time for Bernie to go, if you ask me. And maybe it never was such a good idea for the yoots to have their ironic grumpy gramps leading that movwment.
Bupalos
@Omnes Omnibus: I hope that’s a deliberately silly mischaracterization.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bupalos: Let’s call it an overstatement for effect.
Bupalos
@Omnes Omnibus: Tit for tat would be “are we back to your guys’ position that only Necromancy Nancy and her mysterious legislative arts can save America?”
Omnes Omnibus
@Bupalos:
Sure, if you want to rely on silly nicknames and completely miss the point that people were making.
satby
Sanders misled a national youth movement (deliberately or out of hubris, YMMV) and set progressivism back much more than the 4 years of tfg’s maladministration. The Bernistas were the most vocal about “not being blackmailed by talking about SCOTUS”. The “dissatisfied status quo” had ended with Obama’s election, which more astute and less compromised politicians already recognized, certainly by 2015. Thank god, most Bernistas have grown up, though like a lot of their elders re: tfg, they’re reluctant to admit how badly that dishonest old goat played them.
Bupalos
@Omnes Omnibus: I know it’s silly and talks past the point. It’s just meant as tit for tat nonsense for nonsense..
Bupalos
@satby: I’ll agree with a bunch of that, but “set back progressivism” seems overstated or wrong. The reality is that the kind of firebrand challenge Clinton faced from the Bernistas moved the frame this party now operates in. Of course, another thing that moved the window is that in many ways the whole house just flat burnt down. If one puts the blame for that squarely and solely on that challenge, I think something is missed.
But as I said “maybe it never was such a good idea for the yoots to have their ironic grumpy gramps leading that movement.”
BC in Illinois
In 2008, Nancy Pelosi — then in her first term as Speaker of the House — wrote a book (still available) entitled KNOW YOUR POWER: A Message for America’s Daughters.
I have a copy for all four of my granddaughters.
Alison Rose
Obviously Nancy being a Deadhead means she and I were supposed to be friends so I can tell her all of my family’s stories. Come on, Nancy SMASH, give me a call!
Also I haven’t read the thread yet so I don’t know if any of the naysayers showed up, but hopefully y’all can at least agree with that Bernie tweet
Also, the Delancey Street cafe had the best blueberry muffins I’d ever had in my life, back when I lived in SF. No idea if the same place is still there or the menu is the same, but if you’re ever nearby, go look for it.
kindness
I was at that Friday night Dead & Co show. It did get cold. Colder than the Saturday or Sunday shows which (of course) I also went to. Again on the agist whining people? Really? I should expect more of you, but have learned to temper my expectations. Nancy is great. She actually represents her constituents well which is their # 1 job (or should be). Openly kvetching about Democrats most successful representatives is part of how Hillary lost to Trump. It feeds the MSM narrative to elect Republicans. Don’t be one of those types.
wjca
Especially since, statistically, women in their 80s have a longer life expectancy than men of the same age.
wjca
And, on the evidence, they are among the most destructive of the social fabric.
Bupalos
This country is rigged to fuck over the young and flatter, enrich, and cater to the old. I find most of the “ageism” stuff to have pretty close parallels to “blue lives matter.” There are actual and urgent issues of generational inequality that are being papered over with a kind of vague conflation of a life-stage status with an unchanging and unchangeable identity.
satby
So, obviously you must be a male, because for women the Dobbs decision set back rights by 50 years in much of this country. And it’s frankly offensive that you, your demigod idol, and other Bernistas handwave that away, just as you dismiss the damage to voter’s rights, and the ecological damage from the new SCOTUS restrictions on the EPA. So my statement stands, and it has factual basis.
Bupalos
@satby: I don’t downplay any of that. The 2016 loss was the house burning down, it was an unmitigated disaster. The point is whether one solely blames the intra party left wing insurgency against Clinton for that, and whether that loss represents a long-term setback for progressivism as a political force in the United States. I think it’s very much a mixed bag, and it’s wrong to dismiss the way the Democratic party is overall significantly more progressive now.
I can’t help chuckling that Bernie Sanders is now my “demigod idol” when I just got done saying he was probably the wrong person at the wrong time to lead that movement.
kindness
@Bupalos: Don’t worry dude. I’m already ignoring you.
Bupalos
@kindness: I fully expect sentiments suggesting that young people land on the wrong end of intergenerational justice to be ignored here.
Mo MacArbie
I don’t blame the loss in 2016 on any one thing with any confidence. The margins in those three states were tight enough that any number of pet theories can seem to explain them. However, I do see the vitriol of that primary as a mistake that people all around do not wish to repeat, and that the unity born of that has made a decisive contribution to our legislative accomplishments since 2020.
satby
@Bupalos: Well, not solely blame, just a lion’s share. Of my younger relatives Bernie’s undermining of Clinton’s message and electability convinced at least 4 to vote third party rather than Democratic in 2016. His sour grapes attitude, his refusal to rein in his more aggressive followers at the convention, his dark intimations that he wuz robbed! all played a part. There were certainly other bad actors, but he helped bring about tfg, which set his younger followers back and for the women continues to. But, he’s got three houses and as noted above 37 million at his disposal. Fuck Bernie: he didn’t really give a shit about all the bullshit he spouted.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bupalos: Yes, we are terrible people.
I think the disconnect we are having is that you seem to be advancing a theoretical goal of broad representation. The rest of us are more concerned with pragmatic issues of trying to advance legislation.
Are you familiar with the old joke about the French philosopher? When present with a new plan, he responded “It’s all very well that it works well in the real world…. How does it work in theory?”
Bupalos
@Omnes Omnibus: I think that is the nut of the difference, yes. I don’t think this is so much a theory vs. practice thing as long-term/short-term or big-picture/small-picture.
Those things always need to be balanced, but on the whole I look at the current political landscape and how we got here and think it’s time to prioritize the big picture
And here I just thought you were OLD people!!
Geminid
@satby: If I were choosing a model progressive legislator I would pick Sherrod Brown.
columbusqueen
@Bupalos: i think you’re still making excuses for Bernie the sleazeball.
columbusqueen
@satby: Preach it loud!