Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Nancy Pelosi Makes History

The ANNOTICO Report

 

For the First time in US History, a woman, Nancy Pelosi will be Speaker of the House of Representatives in Congress.

With her election to Speaker of the House, Pelosi takes her place in history along with other Italian American women trailblazers who have carved careers in government service: Ella Grasso, the first woman ever elected governor in her own right; Mary Landrieu, the first woman of Italian descent ever elected to the U.S. Senate and Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman ever to run for vice president of the United States.

''Little Nancy'' learned her business as a child. Her father, Thomas D'Alesandro Jr., was one of a handful of Italian Americans in Congress, elected to five terms from 1938 to 1946. He then ran a Democratic machine as Baltimore's mayor for a dozen years. Her mother, also named Nancy, was known for an unforgiving style and was active in D'Alesandro's campaign and constituent work.

Pelosi interned for a senator from Maryland, then her marriage to investor Paul Pelosi took her to San Francisco, where she raised their children. As Paul Pelosi's wealth grew, so did Nancy Pelosi's involvement in Democratic activism and fundraising.

In 1987, she won a special election to replace her friend, Rep. Sala Burton, who'd died.In nearly two decades in office, Pelosi has been underestimated as a chocolate-popping, rich liberal with a soft touch. But her admirers say she loves baseball as much as many men do and is one of the party's most aggressive fundraisers, and that her pleasantries mask a ruthlessness she learned from her mother.

 

 

IT'S PELOSI'S TURN TO MAKE HISTORY

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi expects to be the speaker of the House now that the GOP appears to have lost its majority.

Miami Herald
Margaret Talev
Wednesday, November, 08, 2006

WASHINGTON - Call it ironic, or perfectly fitting, that as she stood within reach of becoming the first female speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, California Rep. Nancy Pelosi faced the ultimate dilemma of many American women: work or family?

Between updates from New York, where her pregnant daughter, Alexandra, was overdue for a Nov. 2 delivery, Pelosi, the Democrats' leader in the House, spent the final days of the campaign dashing from one rally to the next, promoting candidates whose defeats of Republican incumbents might put her over the top.

As Democrats appeared to be riding an antiwar wave to take control of one or both houses of Congress, the stakes were historic for the 66-year-old San Francisco liberal, the daughter of a former congressman and Baltimore mayor and the wife of a multimillionaire investor, who waited until her children were grown to run for office.

''It says to women everywhere that not only a glass ceiling but a marble ceiling can be broken and that anything is possible,'' a hoarse Pelosi said outside a Philadelphia-area campaign stop over the weekend.

But for the Roman Catholic mother of five, the idea of missing the birth of grandchild No. 6 was too guilt-inducing to contemplate. If Alexandra went into labor on election night itself, Pelosi had said with her trademark unflinching, lip-glossed smile, ``I'll be at the hospital.''

Pelosi's expectant daughter, in an e-mail on the eve of the election, joked, ``I am really rooting for the Dems to win the House because if they don't, my mother has volunteered to move in for the nanny job!''

Alexandra's baby chose not to be born Tuesday after all, at least as of early evening.

So as the returns rolled in Tuesday night, Pelosi spoke briefly about 9 p.m. EST to Democratic activists packed into a ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Hotel near the U.S. Capitol.

''Are you ready to make history tonight?'' she asked the crowd of several hundred, which erupted in applause. Pelosi said the country was ''on the brink of a great Democratic victory,'' but that she'd withhold further comment until after polls closed out West.

Pelosi still is coming to terms with the import of the election. ''Ten years ago, I would have never thought we would have a woman speaker, and now we do -- well, we will,'' she said.

''Little Nancy'' learned her business as a child. Her father, Thomas D'Alesandro Jr., was one of a handful of Italian Americans in Congress, elected to five terms from 1938 to 1946. He then ran a Democratic machine as Baltimore's mayor for a dozen years. Her mother, also named Nancy, was known for an unforgiving style and was active in D'Alesandro's campaign and constituent work.

Pelosi interned for a senator from Maryland, then her marriage to investor Paul Pelosi took her to San Francisco, where she raised their children. As Paul Pelosi's wealth grew, so did Nancy Pelosi's involvement in Democratic activism and fundraising.

In 1987, she won a special election to replace her friend, Rep. Sala Burton, who'd died of colon cancer.

In nearly two decades in office, Pelosi has been underestimated as a chocolate-popping, rich liberal with a soft touch.

But her admirers say she loves baseball as much as many men do and is one of the party's most aggressive fundraisers, and that her pleasantries mask a ruthlessness she learned from her mother.

''She didn't get there on a whim,'' said Pelosi's brother, Thomas D'Alesandro III, who is also a past Baltimore mayor. ``She got there by hard work.''

mtalev@mcclatchydc.com

 

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