Why Nancy Pelosi Is Effective

Leaders don't just happen. Nancy Pelosi has combined years of experience, skills and good sense to become Speaker of the House. She doesn't hide behind anyone (Dennis Hastert preferred Tom DeLay in the spotlight; when DeLay left, Hastert looked slow and oafish. Republicans argue that Hastert was a Republican loyalist; true, but he became a rubber stamper to an incompetent president). Obviously, Bush and his fellow Republicans will do everything they can to throw a money wrench into the Democratic Congress. But I think we have a good crew.

Here's Harold Meyeyrson of American Prospect who has a long article on Pelosi and her recent rise in Congress:

Brilliant rhetoric isn't part of Pelosi's repertoire (few legislative leaders have been notable public speakers); neither is anger. In her speeches, she regularly precedes her recitals of Republican outrages with words like "sadly" and "tragically." The tone is one of almost motherly disappointment, and that's hardly the only aspect of Pelosi's leadership that seems shaped by a maternal sensibility. As is clear from the morning's two press conferences, Pelosi more regularly showcases her members -- including freshmen utterly unknown to the media -- than any party leader in modern memory.

"More than anyone else I know, she involves many members of the caucus on bills," says one congressional staff director. "Everybody has a role to play." Pelosi also has a crucial instinct for striking a political balance. Perhaps the most liberal Democrat ever to lead the caucus, she has cultivated a very close relationship with the more moderate party whip, Steny Hoyer of Maryland (her onetime rival in the three-year contest for the whip's position that she won in 2001), and appointed centrist budget and military-affairs expert Spratt to the newly created post of assistant to the leader.

"She is willing to lead in a way that is comfortable to me," says Stenholm. "The [fiscally conservative] Blue Dogs are listened to." On the alternative budget that the Democrats present each year, he adds, "Nancy said ... we'll find a middle ground. ... Had it been a moderate Democrat who said that, [the caucus] would have blown up. But because she had the respect of the liberals, we produced a consensus budget."

Has Pelosi moved to the right to hold the Democrats together? In fact, Pelosi has evolved much as Democratic voters evolved during the presidential primaries: toward a politics that combines populist economics with deficit hawkishness and a heavily armed multilateralism. Nearly a year before Democratic voters figured it out, Pelosi decided that the party needed unity and electability above all else.

It's probably true that Pelosi doesn't ordinarily give the best speeches but I thought she did an excellent job yesterday.

Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats, of course, still have to deal with the other side of the aisle and a Republican president. Republicans and their wealthy campaign donors have little to offer average Americans since veering to the right in recent years but they're good at bamboozlement. For example, after allowing unchecked six years of reckless deficit spending for Republican earmarks and even his own campaign contributors, Bush is now, suddenly, a deficit hawk. One could call Bush a hypocrite. Democrats are serious about bringing change to Washington. We'll see if the unseriousness of the Republican Party continues or whether they're ready to confront the growing problems of our nation.

More on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

No one person can turn this country around after six years of incompetence and of course Bush still has his veto power, but Nancy Pelosi is definitely a step in the right direction. Since there's nothing like the in-depth coverage of a home town newspaper, here's Edward Epstein of the San Francisco Chronicle with the story on Nancy Pelosi:

Pelosi, upon her election about this morning, became the first Californian and the first San Franciscan to head the 435-member lower house of Congress.

Quoting St. Francis of Assisi, San Francisco's patron saint, Pelosi said, "Lord, make me a channel of thy peace; where there is darkness may we bring light, where there is hatred, may we bring love, and where there is despair, may we bring hope."

Pelosi, 66, married for 43 years with five grown children and six grandchildren, thanked her family for giving her "the confidence they gave me to go from the kitchen to the Congress."

(snip)

"I accept this gavel in the spirit of partnership, not partisanship," a beaming Pelosi told her colleagues. "In this House, we may belong to different parties, but we serve one country."

(snip)

Singer and fellow Italian American Tony Bennett, who once left his heart in San Francisco, joined the opening of Congress in the visitor's gallery...

(snip)

"People have lost their career underestimating Nancy Pelosi,'' said Michael Yaki, a former Pelosi aide and San Francisco supervisor. "They mistake her patience for complacency, kindness for competitive instinct and a willingness to share credit with not holding the reins tightly."

Pelosi grew up in politics. Her father was a first-term member of the House, and a dedicated New Deal Democrat, when she was born on March 26, 1940, in Baltimore. When she was 7, her father, Thomas D'Alesandro Jr., won the first of three terms as mayor of Baltimore.

Let's hope Nancy Pelosi does well. After the do-nothing years of Dennis Hastert, she's sure to be an improvement as Speaker of the House.

Democrats Take Control; Bush Games Continue

Nancy Pelosi became House Speaker today with the swing towards the Democrats as a result of the November election. Difficult times are still ahead because of Bush's radical right wing agenda has not abated despite the call by voters for change. Bush still has the veto and an itch for the spotlight despite his long series of blunders.

But let's hope the Democrats can get some real work done after six years of Republican do-nothingism. For an outside perspective, here's the story from the British newspaper, The Guardian:

A new era was proclaimed in Washington today as the Democratic party recaptured control of both houses of Congress after 12 years on the sidelines of power.

"The Democrats are back," exulted Nancy Pelosi, who went on to make history this afternoon when she was sworn in as the first woman to become speaker of the House of Representatives.

(snip)

Amid the celebratory mood among Democrats today, the official message from Ms Pelosi as well as the new Democratic Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, was about cooperation with their Republican opponents. But the limits of bipartisanship were made starkly apparent when Ms Pelosi signalled that George Bush, who had a Republican House and Senate in his first six years in the White House, would face new and energised opposition.

"Nowhere were the American people more clear about the need for a new direction than in Iraq. The American people rejected an open-ended obligation to a war without end," Ms Pelosi said.

When it makes sense, the Democrats will work with Bush in a bipartisan manner but he has little interest in listening to the Democrats despite the will of the voters. In the current environment therefore, it is the job of the opposition to oppose. More important, it's the job of Congress to take its place as a co-equal branch of government, fulfilling its role in the checks and balances that a true democracy must have if it is to remain healthy and strong. Republicans in the last six years were too anxious to give Bush a free pass and they often neglected their responsibilities to the American people.

Bush's reckless incompetence remains intact and his love of politics continues to do harm to our nation. Instead of dealing with the reality of Iraq, Bush today is firing the generals he so lavishly praised not long ago; Raw Story has the details:

In what appears to be a military shakeup surrounding Iraq, President Bush has replaced both the top US general in the Middle East and the top General in Iraq, ABC NEWS is reporting on air.

Admiral William J. Fallon will replace Gen. John Abizaid, US commander in the Middle East... ...

(snip)

According to a Kansas City Star article published Dec. 24, "Commanders have been skeptical of the value of increasing troops. The decision represents a reversal for Casey, the highest-ranking officer in Iraq. Casey and Gen. John P. Abizaid, the top commander in the Middle East, have long resisted adding troops in Iraq,

David Petraeus will replace General George Casey, commander of US forces in Iraq. Casey originally opposed the President's plan to add troops in Iraq, arguing it could delay "the development of Iraqi security forces and increase anger at the United States in the Arab world."

Apparently, George W. Bush still thinks he knows what he's doing despite the judgment of the report released by the Iraq Study Group. Except when it comes to playing political games, there is no evidence to date that Bush knows what he's doing. For now, the fiasco continues.

The new Congress should do everything it can to get the president to explain himself. Near the end of the month, Bush will be giving his State of the Union address to Congress; it will also be the job of Congress to make sure the president isn't simply handing them a work of fiction.