Why California Democrat Nancy Pelosi doesn’t care what they say about her
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — “Do whatever you have to do. Just win, baby.”
Nancy Pelosi’s feisty, candid and pragmatic words to Harvard students on Tuesday reflected the House Democratic leader’s adaptation to being designated dart board for Republicans. She granted full absolution to party hopefuls who think they’ll enhance their chances of winning by promising not to elect her House Speaker.
“None of us is indispensable,” she declared amiably.
But then she added: “You can’t let the opposite party choose the leader of your party.”
“They think women are going to run away from the fight. But you can’t do that. You believe in what you have to offer.”
She does, and her implications are clear. Republicans want to get rid of her because she’s effective. Sexism is behind her portrayal as an ogre by the GOP. And while Democrats should say what they need to say now, they shouldn’t depose of her due to GOP pressure.
Speaking before a packed house at an event sponsored by the Kennedy School of Government’s Institute of Politics, Pelosi made as clear as she could that — far from being the ultra-liberal of conservative demonology — she’s thoroughly in touch with the sensibilities of the swing voters her House candidates need to persuade.
She didn’t mention President Trump until later, emphasizing instead the Democrats’ core promises: to hold down health care costs; to enact campaign-finance reform and other democratizing changes; and to implement a big infrastructure program Trump himself might back.
Pelosi resists the idea that a Democratic-led House would move quickly to impeach Trump. On the contrary. “I think using the word ‘impeachment’ is very divisive,” she said. She knows Trump talks impeachment to fire up his base. She won’t feed the blaze.
Still, she stressed that she wants Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation documents “preserved” so Congress and the public can have “the documents and the truth.” A case for impeachment, she seemed to suggest, would emerge from what Mueller finds, not what Democrats say.
She’s equally careful about other inquiries a Democratic House may launch into other aspects of the Trump presidency, listing a long series of Trumpian abuses, but then adds: “I don’t think this should be scattershot. I think it should be responsible, honoring our Constitution and our responsibilities. … I’ve asked my chairs to be prepared, but not everything is on par with everything else.”
More militant Democrats might find Pelosi too deliberate. But she’s shrewd about what a legislative majority can — and can’t — accomplish. She earned a lot of the credit for the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 under excruciating political circumstances.
But it doesn’t reduce the pressure she faces. According to an August NBC News count, 57 Democratic House candidates have said they wouldn’t support her for speaker, partly reflecting a desire for generational change. The party increasingly leans on younger voters, but the top three House Democrats are in their late 70s.
One student complained that the House seniority system freezes out the young. Pelosi briefly mooted the possibility she might serve as a transitional speaker to new leadership. “I see myself as a bridge, really,” she said.
But when Mark Gearan, the director of the Institute of Politics, pressed her on the bridge she had in mind, she didn’t elaborate beyond saying that she was focused on “how we’re taking what we’re doing into the future.”
Pelosi expressed guarded confidence that the electorate would side with the Democrats in order to reintroduce “checks and balances” to Washington. But she warned that many House races are very close. And if instead, the election proved to be “a validation” of “the practices and the personal affronts of this president of the United States, I pray very hard for our country.”
Which is why she doesn’t much worry over what Democrats say about her between now and Election Day.