Pelosi seizes spirit of new resistance

Democrats see opening to soon win back House

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And she held Democrats firmly against the Republican effort to repeal and replace the ACA — not a single Democrat joined Republicans in passing the bill last week, which advanced with a two-vote margin.

But the same savvy and longevity that has made Pelosi such a threat to Republicans also makes her vulnerable to the largely decentralized, grass-roots resistance movement that emerged in opposition to Trump.

Just as Trump supporters were drawn to an outsider, many of these increasingly progressive Democrats — some backed Sen. Bernie Sanders over Clinton in the primary — are calling for new faces and approaches, frustrated by what they see as entrenched party leaders. Some wanted Democrats to fight harder to stop the health care vote, holding up passage of the spending bill as leverage.

“Nancy Pelosi is out of step with Democratic voters, esp. in SF,” tweeted Stephen Jaffe, a Sanders supporter who is launching an uphill primary challenge against Pelosi in her district. His website proclaims, “We are all socialists.”

Pelosi is also the target of familiar attacks from Republicans, who have long used the San Francisco liberal as a symbol of everything they see as wrong with the left.

Pelosi’s name and image have popped up in campaign ads for the spring special elections in Kansas, Georgia and Montana, with more planned as Republicans try to retain their majority in 2018.

“She’s still a Democratic boogeyman, so to speak, and I don’t think that’s going away any time soon,” said Jesse Hunt, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Pelosi dismisses such criticism even as she embraces the spirit of the new resistance.

“You’re telling me I’m not liberal? I’m from San Francisco,” she says. “But I respect it so much — and I actually thrive on it — and I like the idea that they’re relentless, persistent and dissatisfied, because that’s what a democracy is about. It’s not a necessarily orderly kind of predictable thing.”

Supporters warn it’s best not to bet against Pelosi, noting that the last time she was in this role, in 2005 as the minority leader under a Republican president, she engineered the takeover to become House speaker.

“She’s been around politics long enough to know people don’t have to agree with you, but they have to be engaged,” said John Lawrence, her former chief of staff, who spent 40 years on Capitol Hill and now is a visiting professor at the University of California’s annex in Washington.

Many Democrats see today’s political landscape as reminiscent of 2005, when President George W. Bush saw his popularity tumble amid the ongoing conflict in Iraq and his proposal to privatize Social Security.

Democrats hope the recent GOP effort to repeal Obamacare will bring a similar backlash against Republicans.

House Republicans hold 23 seats in districts that Clinton won in 2016, and 10 more that she narrowly lost, putting those seats within reach for Democratic challengers. Pelosi needs to turn 24 seats and hold on to what Democrats have now to win back the speakership.

Asked whether she is having fun in her new role, Pelosi said, “We all take satisfaction in our work.”

“Is it fun?” she added, mulling over the question. “No, it’s fun to be in the majority. Now you’re talking fun. Now you’re talking a good time.”