House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has just ended two long days of intense speculation. She has announced that she will run for Minority Leader in the next Congress.
In a tweet from earlier this morning, she said, “Driven by the urgency of creating jobs & protecting #hcr, #wsr, Social Security & Medicare, I am running for Dem Leader”
From the letter she sent her Democratic colleagues,
“Our work is far from finished. As a result of Tuesday’s election, the role of Democrats in the 112th Congress will change, but our commitment to serving the American people will not. We have no intention of allowing our great achievements to be rolled back. It is my hope that we can work in a bipartisan way to create jobs and strengthen the middle class
“Many of our colleagues have called with their recommendations on how to continue our fight for the middle class, and have encouraged me to run for House Democratic Leader. Based on those discussions, and driven by the urgency of protecting health care reform, Wall Street reform, and Social Security and Medicare, I have decided to run.”
An analysis by MSNBC said that Pelosi is the best Democratic fundraiser after Obama and Bill Clinton and was along with Rahm Emmanuel an architect of the congressional election successes of 2006 and 2008.
Something else to remember. Pelosi almost never brought a bill to the floor unless she knew for certain that it would succeed. She’s one of the best vote counters ever.
I hope San-fran Nan wins. She will be a fantastic reminder to the the American people of why they voted to remove her as Speaker.
Go – go Nancy!!
junior–I know, Hire Pelosi….But the result would probably have been worse if she hadn’t been Speaker. She raised a fortune for Dems and the DCCC, without which they would have lost 10-20 more seats in a Post-Citizens United world. Republicans used to put Willie Browns picture on hit pieces against Democrats throughout California and it had marginal effect. Her biggest screw up IMHO? Forcing her members to vote on Cap & Trade without assurances it would reach the Senate floor. This vote cost a number of Democrats their seats. But on balance, Steny Hoyer, Henry Waxman or Homer Simpson could have been Speaker and the Democrats were going to get thumped as President Bush would put it.
My motto is ” Don’t Blame Pelosi–Blame the White House”. DNC member Robert Zimmerman said it best on CNN ” The White House communication effort was so poor it couldn’t sell cocaine to Charlie Sheen.”