Pelosi shows her power
If you are betting on politics, here's my advice - put your money on Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Historian Robert Caro famously crowned Lyndon Johnson the "Master of the Senate." After last week, it's clear Pelosi is his equal in the House.
In the darkest hours, as House Democrats publicly feuded over two big spending bills, it looked like the Biden presidency and congressional Democrats' chances in the 2022 midterms were going down in flames.
Cue the doom and gloom music. Get ready to watch Republicans snickering as they celebrate stories of Democrats in disarray.
But like the movie hero Indiana Jones, Pelosi managed to escape her Temple of Doom. She began by reminding her razor-thin majority of House Democrats her party cannot afford to lose more than four votes on any measure - that winning passage of both bills is far more important than the timing of the votes. That meant a promised Thursday vote was no longer a hill to die on.
And, in tandem with President Biden, she kept control by reminding fellow Democrats of the larger political stakes. Both bills are part of Biden's agenda, an agenda that is supported by both moderates and progressives. Polls show public support as well.
As Pelosi told The Atlantic recently, Biden's agenda is being compared to President Franklin Roosevelt's historic New Deal, but Roosevelt "had 319 Democrats in Congress" while she and Biden are hanging on by their fingertips. That's why historians will marvel at the deathdefying moves she used to keep the Democrats alive. Here's the story you will see in the history books: As Democrats struggled through their dark night of turbulence, expressions of dissent about the 81-year-old Pelosi steering the ship were kept to a minimum. Even Senate Democrats treated her with respect.
She pressured Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) to say clearly how big a price tag they will abide for a reconciliation bill. "I would never ever think about telling Nancy how [to run] her operation," Manchin said. "She knows what she is doing." Then Manchin went public with a price tag he could accept. That started the real negotiations. That was a win for Pelosi.
"Let me just tell you about negotiating," Pelosi said in the middle of the storm. "At the end, that's when you really must weigh in. You cannot tire. You cannot concede. This is the fun part." Moderates in Pelosi's House majority wanted an immediate vote on the infrastructure bill already passed by the Senate. Left-wing House Democrats insisted on twinning the infrastructure vote with the reconciliation vote on funding for popular social programs including Medicare expansion, tuition-free community college and a child tax credit.
With Pelosi straddling the warring factions, Democrats on either side had a free shot at her. Every television camera was rolling. Any Democrat was in position to score points by calling her out for changing strategy on the timing of the votes. The two most recent Republican Speakers, John Boehner (Ohio), and Paul Ryan (Wis.), both suffered that fratricidal death when right-wing members undercut them in front of conservative media.
It barely happened to Pelosi. Yes, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), the leader of the most moderate faction, complained about her having "breached her firm public commitment" to a vote on the traditional infrastructure bill. And Sinema jabbed at unnamed "Democratic leaders" who had made "conflicting promises." But, when it came to personalized criticism, there was little else.
Even as loud, internal disagreements among Democrats continued, Pelosi got her House caucus together for a more modest but vital win. They agreed to a continuing resolution to keep the government funded, avoiding a crippling government shutdown.
In today's hyper-polarized politics, a win on any of these items is significant. But Pelosi's ability to keep all of them in play stands as a virtuoso exercise in political power. Even a fierce ideological foe, former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), said last week that "you could argue she's been the strongest Speaker in history."