Democratic disaster casts shadow on Nancy Pelosi

[KamaAina]

http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2014/11/05/house-results-cast-shadow-on-nancy-pelosi/

All but overlooked in the Republican Senate landslide is the double-digit loss of seats for Democrats in the House. The outcome casts a cloud on House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s future, potentially throwing the House out of reach for Democrats in 2016 and dashing Pelosi’s dream of serving as House speaker with a President Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Democrats lost at least 14 seats Tuesday, including the one held by first-term Rep. Ami Bera of Elk Grove (Sacramento County), who fell to Republican former Rep. Doug Ose in a race that attracted big spending by outside groups on both sides.

Because gerrymandering has reduced the number of competitive House districts to roughly 50, or barely 10 percent of the 435 seats, the climb back for Democrats is going to be monumentally steep. Republicans now hold their biggest majority since Harry Truman was president in 1946, and if the numbers climb as final results come in, the party could break records going back to the 1930s. So big was the GOP wave that Michael Grimm, an indicted Republican congressman from Staten Island, was re-elected.

All this comes on top of the Democratic landslide loss of 63 House seats in 2010 that toppled San Francisco’s Pelosi, now 73, from the speakership. Pelosi defied tradition by staying on as minority leader despite the humiliating losses, determined, she said, to see the Affordable Care Act implemented, a legislative victory attributable to her as much as President Obama.

[belzabubba333]

1. they need to go, nancy, harry

[Joe Bacon]

11. All of them need to go

Pelosi, Hoyer, Clyborn, Reid and Durbin.

All of them need to go and be replaced with people who will fight.

[Sunlei]

2. She will be fine,needed to pull out all the bills shelved & call for votes again.

We need her experience & ability to not be afraid to state the truth.

Pelosi was the only one who in 2008! wasn't afraid to call President Bush, "a total failure, losing all credibility with the American people on the war, on the economy, on energy, you name the subject" and that Congress had been "sweeping up after his mess over and over and over again"

[WhiteTara]

7. but pulled impeachment in 2005. nt

[angrychair]

3. clean house

Of all DNC and senate and house leadership.

[craigmatic]

4. This isn't her fault. The fault lies with the messaging and coordination efforts.

[bigwillq]

5. Time to go, Nancy.

We need new leadership.

[Duckhunter935]

6. should have gone a few years ago

I am sorry, but that is how I feel

[RtHonLordBob]

8. Not Just Nancy

This loss provides an opportunity for progressives to press hard to change the whole leadership. Democrats should respond to 2014 by replacing Harry Reid with Elizabeth Warren; Debbie Wasserman Schultz with Howard Dean; Nancy Pelosi with Jared Polis or some other strong progressive. This would send the message the we're not retreating but instead standing up for things that will get the voters energized next time around. It would also give us leadership in both houses tough enough to stand up to Republican shenanigans. These are trying times for the party, and we can't survive with corporateist, careerist, wet rags like Reid, Pelosi, and Wasserman Schultz at the helm.

[arcane1]

9. In-goddamn-deed it does! Well-said! And great suggestions, too!

[KamaAina]

10. Hell yeah!

And welcome to DU! You sure picked a swell time to join us.

[swilton]

12. Agree with you 100%

But the realist/cynic that I am suggests what I fear is that the careerists that have created this folly will just become more entrenched.

I've made this link on several posts so please forgive me for beating the dead horse once more. But Paul Jay (TRNN) astutely made these observations on the eve of the 2010 election. So we thought the Republican Party was dead and awaiting the last nails in their coffin after the 2008 election. Well as Jay astutely points out in 2010 - the Democratic Party (Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Wasserman-Schultz) (through not holding them accountable for the Iraq War, et. al.) allowed the Republicans to have a resurgence. There were other ways as he notes.

How the Democrats Allowed the Tea Party to Rebrand the GOP

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=5806

[RtHonLordBob]

13. Not That Far-Fetched

The careerists will certainly try to entrench themselves, but if progressives respond quickly and dramatically in the aftermath of this disastrous election we may have a chance of shocking them into action. If we make it seem like being progressive is what the need to do to keep their jobs, then being progressive is what they'll do, just like the Tea Party threatened primaries and killed all the "RINOs".

We should try to get the Progressive Campaign Change Committee to organize an effort to pressure the politicians to kick out the bums we currently have in "leadership" and replace them with actual progressives.

[RtHonLordBob]

15. Getting it done

For those interested in trying to force a shake up: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025773719

[meow2u3]

18. Alan Grayson ought to be the Minority Leader

He's a strong progressive who pulls no punches and will instill partydiscipline. He'll rein in the DINOs IMO.

[blkmusclmachine]

14. Won't shed any tears for the Blue Dogs.

[Paladin]

16. I lost faith in Pelosi, back when she was providing cover for Dubya.

It's way past time for her to vacate the premises.

[Filibuster Harry]

17. Well there is no guarantee that staying on message (supporting the President) would have

resulted in re-elections. Having said that the Dems should have supported the President, explain what he has done for this country, what the Rs have done TO this country since taking over the House, negate the fears of Ebola, etc. and what a R controlled senate would do to our agenda.

So replacements need to be found and start with those that did not run away from the President.