So, what about Nancy Pelosi?
One of the more dramatic sidelights in that dramatic congressional election in Pennsylvania was the way Republicans attempted to turn the whole campaign into a Pelosi referendum.
If you lived in the Pittsburgh area, you saw multitudinous ads warning that Democrat Conor Lamb would “join Pelosi’s liberal flock” if he won. People there will probably spend the spring wandering around muttering “Nancy Pelosi and Conor Lamb Are Still Opposing Your Tax Cut.”
“You cannot watch TV at any time of the day or night without seeing the ‘mudslinging’ campaigns,” one reader complained to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It’s tough, all the advertising overkill that comes with a tight election. Those of us who live in districts where the typical contest is a 12-term incumbent versus anything the opposition can dig up — a woman who just moved into the state, a guy who just got out of prison on an arson conviction, a 12-year-old Chihuahua — are so lucky.
For Pelosi, the only downside to Lamb’s victory was the part where he promised he’d never vote to keep her on as leader. (“My take is, if these people have been around for several years and they haven’t solved these problems that have been hanging around, it’s time for someone new to step up and get it done.”)
So what does this all mean?
A) Pelosi loses! How many other Democrats in tough races will promise to replace her? It’s a hell of a lot easier than balancing the budget.
B) Pelosi wins! Look, she would have been perfectly happy to have Lamb call her a voodoo-priestess puppy-killer if it got her another seat.
C) Republicans self-immolate! People who bet their political fortunes on the presumption that voters care who’s the House minority leader deserve what they get.
O.K., it’s very possible that your average voter is not all that obsessed with Nancy Pelosi. But I know you’re different, concerned citizen. And she really has been through a lot. David Barker, a government professor at American University, thinks the Republican effort to portray Pelosi as an uber-villain “may be unique, historically speaking.” And the reason, Barker adds, has to be “at least partially related to gender.”
Pelosi doesn’t really love the idea that the Republicans’ hatred is about sexism. “I don’t think it’s because I’m a woman. It’s because I’m an effective leader,” she said in a phone interview.
Or it could be both. Pelosi is famous as a behind-the-scenes tactician. When the Democrats controlled the House and Barack Obama was president, she single-handedly dragged the Affordable Care Act to passage like a firefighter rescuing a comatose 300-pound fifth-floor resident from a burning building. And as a fund-raiser, she’s a veritable vacuum cleaner.
She sounds as if she wants to stay. “I wouldn’t give that up lightly,” she said of her job. “Nor do the women of the country want me to.”
But the Democrats in the House aren’t all enthusiastic. Some have been saying they want a leader who’s younger, more open to new ideas, less likely to become a political meme for the opposition. “I do think it’s time to pass the torch to a new generation,” said Representative Linda Sánchez, 49, in a recent TV interview.
You do have to admit the Democratic leadership is looking a little … non-fresh. Pelosi turns 78 this month. The next two people in line — Steny Hoyer and James Clyburn — are equally senior.
“And why is it that the only one being pressured to leave is a woman?” demanded one of Pelosi’s friends.
Well, probably because she’s on top. Although if she was replaced by the 78-year-old Hoyer, that would be pretty embarrassing. And some of the younger Democrats who are mentioned most often as possible successors — like 56-year-old Representative Joe Crowley of Queens — aren’t exactly new brooms.
The ideal solution — except for the other Democrats who are eyeing her job — might be for Pelosi to come back with a new message. Maybe she could follow the Republican lead and impose term limits on committee leadership jobs, giving junior members a chance to shine. The Democrats haven’t done this because of opposition from the Congressional Black Caucus, which argues that the current seniority system is good for minority members. It’s certainly good for the veteran minority members who have important posts they can keep forever. But the younger, ambitious black House Democrats are stuck in the same clogged system as their white counterparts.
If the public thinks Pelosi is less than inspiring, that’s probably because making messy political bargains and fund-raising aren’t exactly celebrated skills these days. Polls show House Speaker Paul Ryan is equally (un)popular. And he’s now being Pelosi-ed by a Democratic super PAC with a new ad showing a man who’s supposed to be Ryan drinking champagne, admiring his hair and working out in the gym in the most self-obsessed manner possible. “Whoever Speaker Ryan thinks about — it probably isn’t you,” the narrator warns.
Plus, there’s that election in November. Right now, it seems as if nothing can save the Republican majority. Not even promising to get rid of Paul Ryan. Although it probably wouldn’t hurt.
Guess Pelosi wins.
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