Nancy Pelosi Re-Elected Leader of Divided House Democrats
Nancy Pelosi Re-Elected Leader of Divided House Democrats
4 hours ago
Patricia Murphy
Capitol Hill Bureau Chief
Despite the protests of Democratic moderates and the devastating loss of the House Democratic majority in the midterm elections, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi won re-election to be the leader of her caucus by a vote of 150 to 43 over Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) Wednesday afternoon.
But Pelosi's victory did not come easily. Unlike 2008, when she was elected speaker unanimously, this year she had to battle dissension within her Democratic ranks, a challenge from an angry moderate arm, and multiple internal attempts to delay and derail her hold on power.
The first signs of trouble for the speaker came well before the midterm elections, when moderate Democrats and even some liberals announced they would not support her to be the leader in the next Congress. As the midterms neared, Pelosi found herself demonized as the subject of hundreds of attack ads on rank-and-file Democrats, portraying her as a witch, an arsonist and a good time road-tripper spending money at every turn.
After her party lost In a whopping 61 seats on Election Day, which President Obama described as a "shellacking," Pelosi was widely expected to step aside as leader and possibly retire from Congress altogether. But she stunned political watchers when she announced that she would move to stay on as the top Democrat in the House.
Although liberals rallied to her side, Shuler, a member of the Blue Dog coalition and a former NFL quarterback from North Carolina, announced that he would mount a longshot bid to oust her. "We've just come off the largest, most devastating loss for the Democratic Party in almost a century," Shuler told CNN. "To be able to put Speaker Pelosi as minority leader is truly, it's unacceptable."
When House members returned to Capitol Hill this week, the Congressional Black Caucus also withheld its support from Pelosi to protest what they said was a demotion in the leadership ranks for Rep. Jim Clyburn, the highest-ranking African American in Congress in history. Several others moved tried to delay the party elections that would keep Pelosi on, saying they needed time to understand the message of the elections.
"When you have taken the largest losses on my lifetime, I think a little time for reflection is called for," Rep. Peter DeFazio said Wednesday after leading the effort to postpone the leadership votes.
Although DeFazio and his colleagues lost their effort to put off the vote, they won on a measure to allow members to vote by secret ballot, a move they said would give dissenters a better chance to cast a vote against the sitting leadership.
"That was unexpected," said Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), who advocated voting by secret ballot. "It was quite a significant moment this morning. I think we made our point."
Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) said he considers himself one of Nancy Pelosi's closest friends, but also wanted to delay a decision on re-electing her. "I think we missed an opp today to send a signal to the American people that we understand what happened in this election." He also took issue with some of Pelosi's tactical decisions, that he said cost Democrats their jobs. "I think we put our members in jeopardy by voting on bills that were never going to be taken up in the U.S. Senate."
DeFazio took issue with the leadership's aggressive support for the White House agenda. "I think the great failing in this congress was that the House enabled the White House and the White House was not always right," he said.
Despite his misgivings, DeFazio said he would support Pelosi in the end. "Nancy Pelosi can do a better job than I can," he said. "I may not always agree with her, but she can run a caucus better than I can."
In the end, Pelosi did win a majority of votes and emerged from the Democratic caucus room with the party's other leaders-- who all stayed on in their leadership posts-- smiling and declaring that she was proud to be a part of the leadership team.
But when pressed by a reporter about why she should lead her party after she became a central issue in the elections and her party lost more than 60 seats, Pelosi stopped smiling.
"How would your ratings be if $75 million were spent against you?" she shot back. "Because I'm an effective leader, they know I'm the one who can attract the resources, both intellectual and otherwise to take us to victory. I have done it before and I can do it again."
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/11/17 ... democrats/
OH MY GOD. CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS?
