JANUARY 31, 2014 BY ADMIN

Pelosi’s Not Going Home

For House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the bad news keeps piling up.
On Thursday, longtime Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman, a Pelosi ally and fellow Californian, announced he would retire at the end of this Congress. That closely follows Rep. George Miller’s (D-Calif.) decision to also leave the House at the end of the year.
While Democrats should hold both seats, the departures put more districts in play. Perhaps more important, the retirement of two Pelosi friends — both of whom would be chairmen in a Democratic majority — bolsters the GOP argument that their grip on the House is solid.
National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Greg Walden (Ore.) called Waxman’s retirement a “clear indication … that the House Democrats don’t think they’re going to be wielding the gavels next time.”
The NRCC will use the Miller and Waxman retirements to raise money and lean on business groups and wealthy donors to back GOP candidates, arguing that the writing is already on the wall for Election Day and they’d better get on the winning side now.
Pelosi was even forced to deny rumors on Thursday that she too was retiring. More than a dozen Democrats called her personally to find out what was going on after a story speculated she might step down.
“I’m running. I’ve already started the paperwork process. My work is not finished,” Pelosi said in a statement.
The fact that Pelosi has to take time to swat this kind of speculation shows how bad things have gotten for House Democrats in the past few weeks.
Democrats deny that the retirements have anything to do with the party’s bleak outlook in the House.
“I don’t accept the idea that Democrats won’t get the House back,” Waxman said. “I think that the Republicans have nothing to offer. They’re against everything. They’re against everything Obama wanted. They have no alternatives on health care policy. They have nothing to say, they have nothing to offer.”

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This article was written by John Bresnahan for POLITICO; continue reading at POLITICO..
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Tagged as: big government liberals, california, henry waxman, nancy pelosi

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