By now you’ve seen that soon-to-be-ex-Speaker Pelosi has announced, via Twitter, that she will stand for election as House minority leader.
“Driven by the urgency of creating jobs & protecting [health-care reform], [Wall Street reform], Social Security & Medicare, I am running for Dem Leader”" Pelosi tweeted.
Less than two hours ago, I was wondering whether the noises out of the Blue Dog caucus indicated that Pelosi wouldn’t be able to hang on if she ran for leader. The presumptive challenger would have been current majority leader Steny Hoyer, who enjoys more support from moderate Democrats. But WaPo reports Hoyer won’t be running:
Many Democrats had hoped Pelosi – a central figure in the Republican campaigns that led to the ouster of more than 60 Democrats and returned the House to GOP control – would step aside and let Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) become minority leader.
Hoyer, who has support from the party’s diminished moderate-to-conservative ranks, has announced that he would not challenge Pelosi. Some Democrats suspect he may leave leadership altogether, setting up an even more liberal leadership team than House Democrats had the previous four years.
Since Tuesday’s election, Pelosi’s closest friends, liberal Reps. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), have been directly seeking support for her while she publicly had been unclear of her intentions.
Chuck Todd makes a good point when he tweets that “Pelosi’s a good vote-counter, she would NOT have announced if she didn’t think she had the votes.” One supposes that Pelosi’s logic is that the Democratic caucus has since the Tuesday purge of a number of Democrats in swing districts, become more — and not less — friendly to her brand of left-progressivism. I haven’t seen hard data on the net ideological balance (by votes etc.) of the incoming Democratic caucus, but that doesn’t sound implausible.
Then there’s Ken Spain’s response, already excerpted in part by Ramesh. I also liked this bit:
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result. Of course, if House Democrats are willing to sacrifice more of their members in 2012 for the glory of Nancy Pelosi, we are happy to oblige them.”
Considering the political moment, this seems exactly right. I didn’t share Stephen’s glass-half-full view of the Harry Reid win in Nevada, but I do see the logic from a tactical standpoint of thinking that two more years of (a significantly weakened) Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi can only be good for conservatives heading into 2012.
It will be interesting to watch Pelosi’s run, in a train-wreck sort of way.
Pelosi said she was going to "pray on it" a day or two ago.
So there you have it, ladies and gents: Indisputable proof that GOD is a REPUBLICAN!
(Smile)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNancy P. the gift that keeps on giving...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDon't they get how polarizing she is? Do they really think that if having her as the figure-head for their 65 seat loss was a lousy idea that having her as the figure-head in trying to retake the house will be a good idea?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI will root for her to be minority leader ad infinitum.
The quote from Ken Spain is overconfident. Pelosi as Minority Leader and as Speaker was just as much a bogeyman in Republican advertising in 2006 and 2008. Democrats won a bunch of seats in both elections, including putting freshmen into many of the seats that Republicans just gained. The "permanent majority" Republicans thought they'd gained in 2004 proved to be fleeting, as will this one. The public changes its mind.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe Blue Dog Caucus is too small to stop the Howling at the Moon Caucus from taking the party over a cliff. The "death of [fill in party name]" predictions after every election are always oversold. This time, it may be worth considering.
You cannot be a national political party if you can only represent 20% of the voters. That seems to be the plan here by staking out ground even further to the left.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf I didn't know better, I would think the far (radical) left is doing its best to undermine everyone else in the Democratic Party, including President Obama. We have Bernadine Dohrn speaking out on the hostility of Tea Partiers, liberal talk show hosts insulting Republican members of Congress and Nancy Pelosi & Company announcing that her foot is still in the door and, if given the chance, she'll be Speaker of the House again some day.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI don't see any residual impact in '12 to Pelosi staying on.
It will be a lot harder for Boehner to play his variation of the Dem's "Blame Bush" game with Pelosi right there to answer back. She'll be in a much freer position and is likely to give Boehner something to cry about for real.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePelosi to nation: "It's just a flesh wound! Come back here, I'll bite your legs off!"
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI think that she is staying because Obama needs her to tell him what to do. Her advice is obviously terrible but I think she is his crutch.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePelosi will be in charge of Democratic strategic vision in the House and Olberman gets suspended on the same day. It's been a wonderful week.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat's different now and going forward from 2006 and 2008 is two years of governance in which Pelosi was able to implement her agenda. That is what provoked the backlash, and I would hope that the voting public would not soon forget what happens when you give her real power... If Newt can still be damaged goods in the eyes of many average folks because of the demonization of him from the left following the government shut down, then surely we should be able to convince the public after Obamacare and Cap and Trade that Pelosi is Cruella de Vil, Bella Abzug, Elena Ceausescu, Tokyo Rose and Lizzie Borden all wrapped into one...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePay careful attention to those remaining Democrats who make no statement regarding the joy of Edith Bunker as leader.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThey must be all be purged in the 2012 regardless of which lunatic the Republicans run against them, and warned that this will happen.
Only those who publicly repent, and push her out the window, should cherish any hope of a future in politics longer than 2 years.
It could be the President needs her. She did supervise the drafting and passing of about every major piece of legislation of the last 20 months. The President outsourced the implementation of his agenda to 2 people: Reid and Pelosi. And it appears they will both survive to see another day. My thinking is that the President will use these 2 pols to run interference in Congress in the hopes that he can blame everything on Boehnner and McConnell. Of course, he runs the risk of keeping 2 of Congress's most polarizing politicians in the spot light. Not a good thing with 24 Democratic Senators coming up for re-election in 2012.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAny chance that this is a show? That there is some sort of general understanding that they've got to have more moderate leadership, but that Nancy still has to run so they can formally (though perhaps not sincerely) repudiate her?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseObama thinks this rebuke was due to poor communication from him to us poor dumb rubes in flyover country. Obviously, if he's going to have to give MORE than a speech a week, he'll need his brain trust in Congress to handle detail work so he can devote his time to more important things - like the guest list for the next $10 million White House party, or his golf game.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWow. Out-to-lunch loudmouth liberal Ogre Man goes down in flames AND THEN Nancy Pelosi, the least popular & most polarizing politician in America, says she wants to run for minority leader.
GOP says: Thanks, guys! We can see 2012 from our House.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI read that tweet quickly and thought she had decided to run for Dear Leader.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat does it matter how "polarizing" she is? Whomever the Democrats put forward will be smeared the same way.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe Democratic Caucus is now fully controlled by it's bi-coastal progressive wing so it makes total sense for her to go after the minority leader job if it's her desire to stay in the House. She's a prolific fund-raiser so having her there will be a financial benefit to the decimated DCCC coffers.
Of course, there is a downside for her....she'll have to get used to flying coach next to those awful proles (snicker, chortle, snicker, snicker...)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNancy was a prolific fundraiser when she controlled the house. Loosing the majority means she no longer decides what is included in legislation and I expect that her fund raising prowess is now much deminished. After all, political donations are nothing more than small investments with expectations for very large returns.
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