The Indispensible Nancy Pelosi

[DonViejo]

Robert Shrum

Republicans turned the Democrats’ leader in the House into the prime reason to keep a Florida district in GOP hands. No wonder they fear her: she’s as responsible for liberal success in Washington as President Obama has been.

As the dust settled after the low turnout special election that saw a normally Republican district narrowly send a Republican to Congress, the National Journal credulously reported the claims of GOP strategists to a "first of its kind" database they called "Honeybadger." What a felicitous choice of words: was it a coincidence that the Democratic opponent was a woman?

So was the real target of this GOP "breakthrough," which itself was explained only in vague and formulaic terms. We were told that it was Nancy Pelosi, the prospect of Speaker Pelosi, and not Obamacare or Obama, that most drove the thin winning margin of Republican voters to the polls.

There is good reason to think that the apparition of this technology and the targeting of Pelosi are not much more than a classic case of spin. The National Republican Congressional Committee's digital director dubiously boasted that Honeybadger has closed the digital divide with Democrats, who "oversold" their data technology in the first place.

We've heard something like this before from the GOP. Previewing election day 2012 on the PBS "NewsHour," a confident Romney campaign revealed their "killer app" to monitor and power get - out - the - vote operations. What Obama had, Romney's communications director said, was "nothing compared to this." Well, that   proved to be true - in reverse. The killer app, code-named Orca, transmogrified into a beached whale on election day.

Why would the GOP nomenklatura reveal their new secret sauce instead of saving it up for November - unless they're actually just serving up a contrived attack on Pelosi? But there is also an underlying truth here. Pelosi has richly earned the animus of conservatives-- and she should command the admiration of Democrats and progressives -- for her singular effectiveness as Speaker, and since 2010, as leader of the House Democratic minority.

To begin with, she almost had to reinvent the Speaker's role. The best of her predecessors - for example, Tom Foley - could and did forge bipartisan agreement. Thus Foley massaged a deal with the first George Bush to unsay his 1988 pledge: "Read my lips- no new taxes." The resulting compromise raised taxes - and, combined with Bill Clinton's 1993 economic package, led by the latter part of the decade to the elimination of federal deficits and the once-in-a-generation realization of balanced budgets, a stunning outcome which would soon be undone by the second Bush.

more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/25/the-indispensible-nancy-pelosi.html

[JayhawkSD]

1. She broke the back of the constitution's balance of power

when she pronounced that impeachment was "off the table." In so doing she announced that an article of the constitution was no longer in force and that the one impediment to an "imperial presidency" had been removed. Two presidents have run roughshod over Congress ever since.

[Hoppy]

2. I want her gone more than any Republican does. Along with Diane Feinstein while I'm at it.

[DonViejo]

3. This article isn't about getting rid of Nancy Pelosi...

it's about blocking her from regaining the Speakership (and the Democrats from the House majority). But you already knew that because you read the entire article, correct?

[juajen]

4. Really? Whatchagot against smart and effective women? NT

[Hoppy]

5. Its about when the smart and effective women are effective in ways that

end up harming us.

Hillary and her vote on the Iraq War. Nothing but political expedience.

Nancy --- see post above.

Diane -- her record on N.S.A. surveillance until she found out they might be spying on her. Balls to everybody else but you shouldn't tap my phone.


That doesn't mean I support male legislators who can be just as harmful.

But Nancy, in particular, pisses me off.

Next question.

[bemildred]

6. Nobody is indispensible nt