Q: What is your message to dems elected today who said they wouldn’t vote for you as speaker?
PELOSI: “Congratulations on winning.”
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) November 7, 2018
You would be hard pressed – it may be impossible – to find a House seat that Pelosi cost Democrats, despite millions of dollars in ads spent invoking her name. But could find several that she probably helped pull across the finish line with ads.
— Ginger Gibson (@GingerGibson) November 7, 2018
rofl he thinks she's Paul Ryan. https://t.co/lHKzJHqhXf
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) November 8, 2018
It’s entirely possible that Nancy Pelosi will not be the Speaker, come January. But whoever wants to take that seat better be well prepared to do as good a job as she’s done — and that’s one hell of a task!
… Pelosi once had plans to retire with the election of the first female president. Those plans were quashed when Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Now, if she can surmount internal Democratic politics, Pelosi has the potential to reshape the Democratic Party and play a central role in the explosive expansion of power by women in politics, which led to significant Democratic gains among female voters in Tuesday’s elections and an incoming House class that includes more than 100 women for the first time….
As it stands, the raw arithmetic of the incoming Democratic majority remains an obstacle. An expected Democratic majority of 11 seats or thereabouts could give a small group of Democrats leverage to demand a shake-up of a leadership team that is distanced from the younger and more activist Democrats who will soon join the House.
Four sitting Democrats voted against her in the last speaker election, and at least 12 of the incoming House Democrats made statements critical of Pelosi on the campaign trail, ranging from a general call for new leadership to a firm refusal to support her becoming speaker again. Seven more Democratic candidates in that category are running in races yet to be called…
Speaking to reporters, she put her pitch more succinctly: “It is not about what you have done; it’s about what you can do.”
But it did not escape many that the issue most responsible for the Democratic takeover — the party’s support for Obamacare and its protection of preexisting conditions — was only made possible because Pelosi forced the health-care legislation through during her first turn as speaker….
Thought experiment: if Sam Rayburn had just won control of the House for the second time in his career as Democratic leader – after Republicans had spent several cycles demonizing him across the country – would anyone expect him to walk away?
— Jonathan Allen (@jonallendc) November 7, 2018
YES I AM,Pelosi says when asked if she’s confident she will be speaker. “I think I’m the best person to come forward to unify, to negotiate – I’m a good negotiator”
— Alana Abramson (@aabramson) November 7, 2018
An argument in her favor, in the Atlantic, by Steve Israel:
In Nancy Pelosi’s office, steps away from the House floor, there’s a mahogany cabinet that encloses four separate television screens. They’re tuned to the cable-news networks and C-SPAN at all times.
Leaning against that cabinet is a stack of baseball bats. It’s the bats, not the screens, that tell the story of Pelosi’s approach to leadership, including maintaining her own in the Democratic caucus.
I frequently sat in Pelosi’s office when I was the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) in 2012 and again in 2014. I watched her negotiate legislation, manage disparate factions of her caucus, and contemplate her future. There was always an amply filled bowl of Ghirardelli chocolates on an end table. And off to the side, in my peripheral vision, were those bats. The message was clear: We can achieve our goals pleasantly or unpleasantly, but we will achieve our goals…
Thursday Morning Open Thread: <em>You Come At the Queen… </em>Post + Comments (214)