Imagine that a "company" faces hard times and the management "fires" one of their three top managers. You'd be surprised if the manager that was removed was the top performer of the three, the highest rated in terms of management criteria. You'd be shocked if that manager was the only woman; you'd suspect sex discrimination. But that's exactly what happened on November 2nd, when voters "fired" Nancy Pelosi.
Pelosi was the Speaker of the House of Representatives, second in line to the Presidency; the highest governmental position a woman has ever reached.
Over the past two years, Pelosi has been most effective Democratic leader. Yet she's an unabashed liberal; the most effective progressive voice in Congress.
In the run up to the 2010 mid-term election, Republican specifically targeted Pelosi. They spent an astounding $50 million attacking her. Ran ads ranging from the humorous "attack of the 50-foot Pelosi" to the disgusting ad showing her face at the bottom of a urinal.
Pelosi was the number one Republican target because she did her job so well.
As Speaker of the House, Pelosi had two primary tasks. Hold Democrats together in order to advance the President's agenda, and raise money for her fellow congresspeople. She did a superb job at both.
Particularly in 2009, Pelosi moved the full range of the Obama agenda through the House. She was personally responsible for the fact that the 111th Congress was extraordinarily successful. Far more legislation was passed in the House than was passed in the Senate. (While some of the Senate's failure can be blamed on the damnable Senate closure rule - which requires the consent of 60 Senators to vote on anything - much of it is due to the inability of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to get Democratic Senators in line.) The House passed healthcare reform months before the Senate did. The House passed a "cap and trade" bill and the Senate never did. In fact, 420 bills were passed by the House only to die in the Senate.
Pelosi did a superb job as leader of the House Democrats.
And Pelosi did her job raising money for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. For the campaign cycle, the DCCC outraised its Republican counterpart, the NRCC. The reason why Democrats lost 60 House seats wasn't inadequate DCCC fundraising, it was GOP-affiliated outside groups that spent millions on this election.
All told, Independent political groups spent more than $270 million on the mid-term elections and GOP-affiliated groups raised the overwhelming majority of the funds. Two of these, Karl Rove's Crossroads group and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, spent more than $70 million and $32 million respectively. (The watchdog group PUBLIC CITIZEN reported that 59.9 percent of outside funds came from undisclosed sources.)
In October, independent political groups spent an estimated $50 million to change control of 50 Democratic-held House seats. On November 2nd PUBLIC CITIZEN reported that outside spending benefited the winner in 58 of 74 contests where power changed hands.
Nancy Pelosi did her job as "fundraiser in chief" for House Democrats. But she was undone by a well-coordinated two-year Republican strategy. The NEW YORK TIMES revealed that House Republican leaders began planning their comeback on January 9, 2009. As reported by Congressman Pete Sessions, the head of the NRCC, "Our mission statement was to retire Nancy Pelosi. That was the whole mission statement."
Not only did Republicans begin recruiting compelling candidates and raising money, they began using "guerilla tactics" targeting Democratic congresspeople throughout the US. They began harassing them at public meetings, chasing them with video cameras, and, well before the election, running negative advertisements in their districts. (Republicans collaborated with GOP-affiliated outside groups to fund and direct the Tea Party movement.)
As a result of the coordinated Republican attacks, Nancy Pelosi's favorability ratings plummeted. Two years ago she was at 42 percent favorable, 41 percent unfavorable. In the most recent GALLUP POLL, her ratings were 29 percent favorable and 56 percent unfavorable.
Between the obscene amounts of money and the virulence of the attacks, the results were inevitable: on November 2nd, voters "retired" Speaker Pelosi.
It's a tragedy because it means that the most effective senior Democratic leader won't be a featured player the next two years. It's a tragedy because liberals' most articulate spokesperson will be on the sidelines. And it's a tragedy because witch hunters have driven out the most senior woman in American politics.
Over the last 30 months we've seen the two most senior Democratic women, Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi, sidelined by sexist Republican attacks. Hopefully American voters will take note of this and recognize that, once again, the GOP is establishing itself as the Party of rich white guys.
Hillary Clinton made a remarkable comeback and it's likely that Nancy Pelosi will do the same. I hope so. These are difficult times and we need a leader like Pelosi guiding Democrats.
Richard (RJ) Eskow: The Fightin' Side of Nancy Pelosi
Johann Hari: The Laws and Policies of the United States Are Now Openly for Sale
Peggy Drexler: Women in Congress -- Don't Sweat the Numbers
Don C. Reed: Proud of My Party, Strong for My State, and Ready to Rumble -- for Stem Cell Research!
Nancy's job approval ratings were the reason for targeting her. Obviously, the opposition chooses what resonates with the public. She resonated as the architect of one of the worst pieces of legislation the public has seen in years: HCR. She passed the "stimulus" bill in the middle of the night. Cap-and-Trade is so unpopular with people that your Democratic senator shot a hole through it to make his point that he wouldn't support that aspect of the Democratic agenda.
In short, the policies of this Democratic administration were constructed to increase the reach and size of the Federal government, which people really do not want.
They voted out the policies, and she championed the policies. This was no devious GOP strategy. Obviously, if you watch the election exit polls at all, you'd know that.
Sorry Nancy-- you became the new Hilary for those looking for a new evil queen.
If only Pelosi had been smart enough as Speaker of the House to not vote on anything, PURE GENIUS!!!
and democrats have learned a lesson from republicans. You can block just about everything even if you are in the minority.
First act as Speaker, impeachment off the table.
Support Obama's health care bill which for the first time in U.S. history requires a person to purchase a product from a private corporation.
Support for the telecommunications immunity for warrentlss wiretapping.
Support forward the Wall Street bailout.
Support for both the illegal invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan.
The complete rejection and dismissal of the United Nations reports on both the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip and their attack on the international aid flotilla.
I could go on, but I hope my point is clear. The Democratic Progressive Caucus only lost 3 seats - the Blue Dogs however, lost about half their seats. Not nearly enough.
I for one, would be very surprised if some one showed me the proof to that statement !!
Specifically, what do you feel The Dude has done to create all those jobs? Was it because he was laser like in dealing with the economy? Was it the 2000 page health insurance bill??
I voted mostly Republican this election, and my vote helped get a corrupt Dem US Representative out of office. I am proud of that, but I will equally vote to boot any openly corrupt Repub.
It is in the interest of our country to have 2 non-corrupt parties to choose from. If the Dems go with Pelosi as their leader, they are obviously opting out of that category, and there are millions of Americans who will vote repub in 2012 simply for that reason.
so as long as they keep their corruption "in the closet" that's ok?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/donnie-fowler/the-once-future-speaker_b_779832.html
Nancy Pelosi is a fighter.
Is there a way to say that more simply?
She led the House Democrats out of 12 years in the minority in 2006.
She set the stage for Barack Obama's 2008 election by standing up to George Bush during his last two miserable years in the White House, drawing contrasts that matter.
And after eight years of hyper conservative policies that nearly bankrupted our nation, Nancy Pelosi turned a progressive agenda into progressive laws over the last two years -- extraordinary progress on health care, clean energy, Wall Street reform, economic recovery, civil rights, and so much else.
Nancy Pelosi is going to return to temporary status as minority leader. The once and future Speaker will be back in 2012.
After two years of deferring to those who wanted compromise with Republicans who had (and still have) absolutely no goal except defeating Democrats, Pelosi can now say that didn't work. She is now free to offer a full-throated argument for progressive values while drawing clear distinctions between a narrow, right-wing agenda and a broad vision for our nation's future. Democrats have got to stand up for what they stand for.
No one else is better for the job.
I personally don't care which side wins, as long as they get rid of the overtly corrupt members who destroy our society. She's one of the worst. If you don't see that, you're either way too biased for your own good, or you're uninformed.
Your credibility also suffers when you assert that you don't care which side wins when you so obviously do.
To quote a famous American, "If you don't see that, you're either way too biased for you own good, or you're uninformed."
She's a corrupt dinosaur.