With honey instead of vinegar, Pelosi steadily inches toward speaker’s gavel

WASHINGTON» U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins was one of 16 Democrats who signed a letter opposing Nancy Pelosi’s bid for House speaker. The New Yorker had also called her “aloof, frenetic and misguided” this year.

But Pelosi ignored all that.

Instead, the veteran House Democratic leader went about winning over Higgins this week, listening to the Buffalo lawmaker’s grievances and enlisting allies to convince him that he would see progress on legislation to expand Medicare.

The strategy worked: On Wednesday, Higgins pulled his name off the anti-Pelosi letter and threw his support behind the 78-year-old leader — moving her closer to reclaiming the gavel she first won more than a decade ago.

Pelosi’s relentless honeyover-vinegar approach to dealing with political headaches — which she learned at the foot of her father, for- mer Baltimore Mayor Thomas D’Alesandro — has been critical to sustaining her grip on power since Democrats won the House majority this month.

She has personally courted disgruntled members in meetings and by phone while deploying her sprawling network to bolster her bid among both liberals and moderates, all but overwhelming her critics with her ability to outmaneuver them.

“She’s doesn’t raise her voice; she doesn’t threaten anybody — that’s not her style,” said U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a Pelosi ally. “She wins by winning the moral argument, by winning the public-relations argument, by winning the argument with groups and activists. She’s going to be speaker.”

According to several aides involved in their discussions, Pelosi’s tenacity has rattled and weakened the ragtag group of rebel Democrats, mostly men, who have struggled to recruit a challenger.