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It was to be expected that the cowardly bullies of the Republican party would use the 'specter' of Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House as a campaign tool to raise funds and influence votes. At first glance, we could easily laugh at the cartoonish characterizations they create of Pelosi and say, "Oh sure, as if she's that liberal" or "Only an idiot would be believe that propaganda", and so forth.
Knowing that dirty campaigns are generally successful, I won't begrudge those who might think these smears against Pelosi may have some beneficial effect for the GOP in the many congressional seats in play. Playing the "liberals are bad" card is a pretty reliable in the Deck of Dirty Tricks (you know, the one where Nixon is the Joker, leering at us from hell). Still, I think the tactic, this time around, is dead on arrival.
In fact, I see the tactic as a gift for us.
There are two main factors in our favor for re-capturing the House (I am keeping Senate dreams on hold). The first is Iraq, front and center. The Republican status quo is no longer desirable for far too much of the voter majority. Playing up Pelosi as a dangerous wild-eyed liberal who champions "cut-and-run" creates expectations that just can't be met in reality. For many on the Left, she will be seen as continuing to fill a niche of centrist compromise and dry-powder reserve. The far Right will continue to demonize her as the current ad campaigns suggest, and those of us remaining will chalk up some of her initiatives and direction as on-target, others as falling short. In general, she will be evaluated with the same mixed marks given to her as Minority Leader. With newfound majority power, expectations will be mostly high from the rank-and-file Democrats, and those will not likely be met at all times either. But I will take our moderately even expectations for her success over their high expectations of failure. Assigning the Democrats a broad failure of leadership, of course, is another sterling example of Republican projection. For the so-called 'war on terror', the Republicans are failures, and the majority of voters know this, instinctively if not intellectually.
The other chief factor is the old stand-by, the economy. Stagnant wages, healthcare costs, outsourcing, and uncertainty about retirement are strong suits for a Pelosi House. The Republicans drag out the stale stand-by "Democrats will raise your taxes!", but it is falling on indifferent ears. Americans by and large are not happy with the runaway debt and its long-term generational costs. Claims that restoring the Clinton-era tax rates on the wealthiest Americans is "class warfare" and not extending the Bush tax cuts for them past 2010 will punish us all and wreck the economy is floundering rhetoric at its worst. Americans know that the economy is not stable at its foundations, no matter how pretty the view is on the top floors. Certainly no matter what reservations, if any, some voters may have about a Democratic House and the economy, they are much less likely to let it stay in the hands of the current crop of borrow-and-spenders from the GOP.
The specter of "terror" isn't as powerful as it was even in 2004. "Taxes!" is not much better. Demonizing Pelosi is scraping the bottom of the Rush Limbaugh oxycontin barrel. If the late Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill is correct, and all politics is truly local, then threats of Pelosi enforcing "San Francisco values" over the rest of us is deservedly relegated as a laughable farce of a campaign tactic. The war, the economy, and the intense importance of localized races effectively neutralizes the anti-Pelosi fearmongering.
I welcome history being made, as the first woman Speaker of the House is sworn in come January 2007. Two heartbeats from the presidency, we will have a Democrat and a formidable leader in that prestigious office again. Only the weak react with fear in the face of hope. We know the Republicans are the party of weakness, fear, and cowardice. That is ultimately why they will not prevail when this eight year nightmare comes to pass.
Finally, even if the worst fears of Nancy Pelosi becoming Speaker ever came to pass, there is no way they could ever exceed those failures of George W. Bush these past long and terrible six years. That is likely the real reason they fearmonger her rise - they dare not address their own and deeply ingrained failures, which not only exceeded our considerably low expectations of his reign, but only validate even more that she deserves a chance to be the leader of the opposition for two years hence.
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