Saturday,
October 21, 2006
Nancy Pelosi: Next House Speaker
???
The
ANNOTICO Report
House
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi needs a gain of 15 Democratic seats to become
Speaker of the House, that just a while back seemed
VERY improbable, but now seems VERY attainable.
Nancy
D'Alesandro in was born in Baltimore where she
learned her political skills from her father, Thomas D'Alesandro
Jr., a New Deal congressman and revered mayor of Baltimore for 12 years.
Her
husband, her college sweetheart, Paul Pelosi, is a wealthy investment
banker, and they have raised four girls and a boy.
MADAM
SPEAKER? PELOSI LIKES
THE SOUND
In
line to lead the House if the Democrats win control, the Californian brings
discipline, fundraising skill -- and a lightning-rod nature.
By Faye Fiore
Times Staff Writer
October 21, 2006
She is, as ever, exquisitely dressed, in a stylish pale-green suit that she
will wear three times in the next three days. Packing light saves time.
Everything must fit into one carry-on and a garment bag, which she lugs
herself, clacking across airports in her high heels.
With less than three weeks before an election that will decide control of Congress,
the Democrats are within tantalizing reach of a House win that would almost
certainly make Pelosi the first female speaker of the House second in line to the presidency and the first ! from
They need to gain 15 seats to take control, and Pelosi falls asleep at night
crunching the numbers. It is her single burning obsession to lead her party to
victory, and she devotes nearly every waking minute to it, coaching candidates,
raising money and calculating in which districts to spend it.
In three years as minority leader she has raised record amounts of cash and
preached party unity that has helped bring 201 unruly Democrats to the brink of
power.
Yet Pelosi is not necessarily the public face most Democrats would have chosen
to represent a party struggling to look strong in these unsettled times a 66-year-old liberal congresswoman from
war-protesting San Francisco who looks too demure to stand up for national
security and isn't great on TV.
Republican ad campaigns cast her as a caricature of liberal excess; depicted
with eyes bulging and mouth agape, she looks like she's about to pop a blood
vessel or bite somebody.
"Look, if I weren't effective, I don't think they would try to take
me down. You're in the arena, you're in the ring. That's what happens,"
Pelosi says on the way to another fundraiser as she crisscrosses the country,
her cellphone affixed to her ear in the car, at
breakfast and in the beauty salon, where she recently dropped it into a
pedicure bowl.
She has raised more money than any congressional Democrat $100 million since she was elected leader
nearly four years ago half of it in
this election cycle alone, tapping her wealthy ideological soul mates and
cultivating small donors with direct mail and the Internet.
She brought vases of white lilies to the minority leader's office, but also a
discipline that Democrats had not seen in years, threatening consequences for
anyone who strayed from the party line. The result was unity 88% of the time on
such votes as energy policy and President Bush's budget. The famously unified
Republicans did only slightly bett! er.
"Prior leadership did not discipline the troops in the way
Pelosi proved herself in the backrooms and trenches of
Most agree she has improved with practice and occasional guidance from media
coaches to slow down and smile. She was more relaxed during a recent appearance
on the "Late Show With David Letterman" and
drew applause more than once with jabs such as: "Mr. President, 'stay the
course' is not a strategy, it's a slogan, and we need more than that."
Unlike pre! vious party
leaders from both sides Democrat
Richard Gephardt and Republican Newt Gingrich, most notably Pelosi isn't running for president. Her
raucous but loyal district has sent her to Washington 10 times, by margins so
huge that she doesn't campaign; she's never needed national exposure and says
she would rather spend her time promoting her party than herself.
"I could stay in
Pelosi learned her political skills from her father, Thomas D'Alesandro
Jr., a New Deal congressman and revered mayor of
Her time-management skills were honed on another training ground: the
While the children were small, Pelosi served as
Each one had a job addressing envelopes, stuffing, sealing and stamping. Their
hard work at the Democratic Party office earned them a bowl of French onion
soup across the street at the old Liberty House department store in
Raising her children taught Pelosi to think strategically, whether putting
together a puzzle with her grandchildren at the family's Napa Valley vacation
home (sort by color and edges and consult the picture on the box) or plotting
to foil Bush's plan to privatize Social Security (kick him in the shins and
give him nothing to attack).
Acting on advice from marketing gurus after the 2004 presidential election,
Pelosi ordered her ranks to assail the Bush privatization plan while offering
nothing of their own that the Republicans could counterassault. Week after week
impatient Democrats as! ked, "When can we propose
a plan?" and week after week she intoned, "Never."
When the Bush team visited 60 cities in 60 days to sell Medicare prescription
coverage the centerpiece of his
second term Democrats were on the
ground too, with a message of higher drug costs and industry perks.
In eight months, support for Bush's idea among seniors had dropped significantly,
marking the beginning of his decline in national public opinion polls.
"We had to make them pay for
trying to do that to the American people," she explains, displaying the
bite that has made her reputation as a political pit bull.
It is a side of Pelosi that has earned her both admirers and detractors,
depending on who happens to be on the receiving end of her wrath. She is known
to have a long memory for slights. A bitter and protracted House leadership
battle with Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) has left lasting divisions between her backers and
his.
"About 75% of the caucus! are
her rabid supporters, the other 25% not so supportive," one senior
Democrat said, asking to remain anonymous to avoid offending the leadership.
"A lot of people just don't like to be led. And to some degree, people
perceive her as being too focused on her enemies and not sufficiently willing
to open up a new dialogue and move on."
Some believe Pelosi is held to a higher standard in maledominated
"There is still a double standard," said Democratic strategist Anita
Dunn, who has given Pelosi tips on media presence. "There have been some
comb-over jokes about male members of Congress, but by and large people just
accept what they look and sound like. That is still not the case with
females."
Though she is probably the second most lampooned woman in
That could change in one historic moment if Pelosi is pulled from the trenches
and plopped into the spotlight.
She sees it as an opportunity to change the culture of
"I think the fact that I am a woman will raise expectations in terms of
more hope in government, and I will not disappoint," she says.
"The gavel of the speaker of the House is in the hands of special
interests, and now it will be in the hands of
faye.fiore@latimes.com
(INFOBOX BELOW)
Nancy Pelosi
1940: Born
Nancy D'Alesandro in Baltimore; her father served
five terms in Congress ending in 1947, then 12 years as Baltimore mayor
1962:
Graduates from Trinity College (now called Trinity University), Washington,
D.C.
1977-1981:
Northern chair, California Democratic Party
1981-1983:
State chair, California Democratic Party
1985-1987:
Finance chair, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
1987-present:
Elected by California's 8th Congressional District, which includes most of San
Francisco; served for 10 years (until early 2003) on the intelligence committee
2001: Elected
minority whip by House Democrats
Oct. 2002:
Leads Democratic faction opposed to authorizing military force in Iraq, bucking
the Hou! se Democratic
leader
Nov. 2002:
Elected minority leader by House Democrats
Nov. 2004:
Democrats lose House seats as Bush wins reelection
Sources: Almanac of American Politics 2006; office of Nancy Pelosi
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