I just can’t get enough of saying that, “Speaker Pelosi”. Every time it swirls around in my mind, I see generations of women - marching for equality and opportunity, mothers telling daughters that we won the right to vote, the gasps of delight in kitchens across the country when Jeanette Rankin was elected to the House, the first woman in either body. Some 90 years later, we finally have our first woman Speaker. It is sad it has taken so long to get here, but here we are all the same!
“Afraid is not a word that is in my vocabulary or my mentality”, says Ms. Pelosi. She has already proven to be a formidable foe whose political savvy was central to the Congressional victory on Tuesday. A strong and determined woman; who takes as pragmatic an approach to buying a sweater as taking down the President; she constructed a plan that chipped away at George Bush while recruiting candidates that shared the nuts and bolts Democratic values of jobs and infrastructure. Not one to back down from a fight, she went after Bush directly with charged words like ‘oblivious’ and ‘delusional’, and called the GOP leadership a ‘freak show’. She personally selected Rahm Emmanuel to run the DCCC and, over his objections, made opposing the Iraq war a key part of her successful strategy. He would later admit “I was wrong, no doubt about it.'’
Betting on their ability to paint Ms. Pelosi as a crazed San Francisco liberal, the Republican machine went after her on everything from marching in gay pride parades to threatening the ‘booming economy’ and our national security. America shrugged. If this sweet Italian Catholic grandmother of 5 is the face of the liberal threat, perhaps there’s no threat at all. What should frighten Republicans even more, America might just decide that they view the world much like she does.
The daughter of Tommy D’Allesandro, she grew up on old school retail politics in an old school Catholic neighborhood in Baltimore. The parish was the focal point of the neighborhood that nurtured her Catholic values, which she believes are conservative. “God gave us all a free will and we were accountable for that, each of us” she says. A hands-on mother of 5, her early life was filled with the joys and responsibilities of raising children including the household chores, homework duty and driving kids to various after school activities. “In the family I was raised in, love of country, deep love of the Catholic church and love of family were the values.”
Turning these values into a new direction for America’s families, Pelosi continues to speak of the promises of her First 100 Hours campaign. Minimum wage, prescription drug reform, alternative energy and pay-go will be on the agenda. Day One, however, will be devoted to lobbyist reform – banning all gifts to staff and politicians, banning all trips, public disclosure of earmarks and the establishment of an independent ethics office. What remains to be seen is how she will handle the increasing demand for Impeachment from the liberal base. Congressmen Waxman and Conyers will necessarily pursue investigative hearings, as she also promised increased and real oversight. But if these hearings turn up evidence of illegalities or make the case that Bush knowingly lied about WMD, it will be difficult to meet the responsibility of her clean government commitment while maintaining her promise to civility and bipartisanship. If the pass is any indicator, she will find a way. After all, says Madame Speaker, “Anybody knows not to mess with me”.
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