Pelosi to Go? Just Say No!
UpDate: Pelosi announces run for minority leader
Carolyn Lochhead reports for the SF Chron:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi maintained solid support among her core backers in the California delegation Thursday as she considered whether to run for minority leader or step down from the leadership, and probably leave Congress, after a devastating rout Tuesday that cost Democrats their majority.
Pelosi remained mum about her plans Thursday. On Wednesday night, she told ABC’s Diane Sawyer that she has no regrets about her tenure and will “pray over” her decision, consulting her colleagues and her family.
“She could be anything she wants to be,” said Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma. “I think she will evaluate and weigh what is best for the Democratic Party and what it is that she wants.”
Top Democratic aides said that if Pelosi leaves, her heir apparent would be Maryland’s Steny Hoyer.
Hoyer, 71, is a budget hawk and go-to leader for the conservative Blue Dog Democrats, whose ranks have been decimated, thus thinning his base of support. But they said Hoyer, a former Pelosi rival who closed ranks with her, has worked tirelessly as her loyal lieutenant and would be an obvious candidate for minority leader.
It’s hard to imagine her not being there, or having any sense of being responsible in anyway for the Dem losses. She is widely praised by those who know her.
Democrats are awed by the ability Pelosi showed during her four years as the first woman speaker.
“She is the strongest and most-talented leader I have worked with in 35 years,” said Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove (Sacramento County). “She has a very clear sense of values,” he added, and “incredible physical strength.”
A veteran Democratic aide said Pelosi “is like no one else I’ve ever seen. I’ve been up here a long time, and I’m blown away by the way she operates.”
Her ability to build consensus amid a diverse and often fractured caucus, a wavering White House and a gridlocked Senate was the chief reason Democrats enacted their decades-long dream of health care reform.
She has a string of legislative achievements that made her among the most effective speakers in the modern era. So effective that speaker-in-waiting John Boehner, R-Ohio, contends that Pelosi did too much too fast, without allowing the country time to digest it.
Republicans deliberately targeted Pelosi for vilification, much as Democrats had targeted former GOP Speaker Newt Gingrich, and their effort paid off. Pelosi’s popularity plummeted and she became a toxic liability in swing districts across the nation.
[Excuse me, Ms. Lochhead, while it is certainly true that many of us did not, and do not, like Gingrich, to equate the vilification of Pelosi in recent months by well funded news and political campaigns with the pitiful public display of our dislike of Gingrich is to not be able to distinguish between 1 and 1 million. Further, if I recall, Gingrich was the author of the memo which told Republicans how to demonizen their opponents with vile and vicious language, and then he shut down the government. Pelosi does not use Gingrich like language against those she disagrees with and has pushed through legislation to help tens of thousands. It should not be necessary in your otherwise fine reporting to add more false equivalancies to the ugly, muddled waters that will soon drown us all.]
Help Nancy Pelosi understand. We need her now!
Call, wire, send roses! You have done the Bay Area proud! We love you!
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