Thursday, November 18, 2010

Minority Leader Pelosi

"Nancy Pelosi will continue leading Democrats in the House of Representatives during the 112th Congress, winning a vote of her caucus, 150-46, on Wednesday."

Link

I'm curious what everyone thinks about this development. Historically the Speaker of the House will give up his or her leadership position after losing the majority. Pelosi believes that the losses Democrats sustained in the mid-term election had more to do with jobs than it did with the party's policies.

I actually like Nancy Pelosi a lot. I think she's one of the strongest leaders we've had in the House in a long, long time. Though you may disagree with the philosophies of the Democratic party, she steered her caucus to pass a massive amount of legislation. In other words, she always got the votes when they were needed. Moreover, I absolutely believe without Speaker Pelosi's leadership and grit the Congress would not have passed Health Care Reform (such as it is). She was able to whip up enough votes in the House to pass the Senate version of the bill when many liberals were adamantly against it. She took the initiative when President Obama was ready to crack and start over.

On the other hand Pelosi's national popularity is low and she can be used easily by the opposition to paint a broad stroke on how liberal the party really is. Keeping the San Franscisco liberal as the leader is probably a PR gift to the Republicans.

After thinking about the pros and cons of her staying as the leader, I've decided, fuck it, I'm glad she's staying on. Most of the Democrats who lost their seats in the mid-terms were moderates so it's natural that a more liberal group would keep Pelosi on as their leader. Besides she's 70 years old, how much longer could she serve?

I want to know what you think. Is it better for the Democrats to keep such a strong leader in spite of the fact that she is controversial in "main stream" America? What are your general thoughts on the soon to be former Speaker and her job in the 111th Congress?

2 comments:

Dann said...

I think it's good that she's staying on. Even though she can be seen as a polorizong figure, I think she has the experience and fortitude to counter some of the crazy right ideas I hear floated by the Tea Party and others!

Jason said...

It's a bad idea. She's delivered on every front other than maintaining a Democratic majority, which is like having more first downs, gained more yards, and more time in possession, but losing the football game. She has done more than Reid and, certainly more than Obama, but the torch needs to be passed to new leadership. We run the risk of public perception being that "nothing has changed." Indeed, I guess nothing has.