Nancy Pelosi = bad ass?

Time Magazine writes a great profile of the woman who may just be the Speaker of the House in a couple of months. Pelosi has been an outspoken leader for Democrats and has, it seems, mastered the inside legislative strategy in the U.S. House.

From Time Magazine:

The 66-year-old San Francisco lawmaker is an aggressive, hyperpartisan liberal pol who is the Democrats’ version of Tom DeLay, minus the ethical and legal problems of the former Republican House leader. To condition Democrats for this fall’s midterm elections, she has employed tactics straight out of DeLay’s playbook: insisting other House Democrats vote the party line on everything, avoiding compromise with Republicans at all cost and mandating that members spend much of their time raising money for colleagues in close races. And she has been effective. House Democrats have been more unified in their voting than at any other time in the past quarter-century, with members on average voting the party line 88% of the time in 2005, according to Congressional Quarterly. That cohesion enabled Democrats to hasten President Bush’s slide in the polls when they blocked his plan to reform Social Security by allowing retirees to eschew guaranteed benefits in favor of private accounts. Bush’s approval rating remains depressed–38% in a TIME poll last week–and the Democrats are in their best position to win the House since Republicans took control of it in 1994.

If Democrats are successful in November, it will be mostly the result of Americans’ increasing frustration with the Iraq war and with the perception that Bush and congressional Republicans have bungled everything from Terri Schiavo to Hurricane Katrina. But Pelosi has made sure Democrats didn’t break the Republicans’ fall. And if Democrats win back the 15 seats they need to form a majority, Pelosi will be richly rewarded. She would almost certainly become the first woman to be House Speaker.

Let’s all work to make sure that Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are able to take control of the House in 2006.

The Democratic leadership has laid out an aggressive agenda in the event that the pendulum swings and they take control of the house in November’s mid-term elections.

It’s exciting to see that Democrats are putting forward the policies they would immediately pursue after the election. A minimum wage increase, a reduction on the interest for student loans, and new lobbying restrictions are some of these policies.

It’s the “new direction” agenda. My concern is that “new direction” sounds like a poll-tested message that we’ve all heard before. They tried it in 2004 with little success and I fear that it isn’t strong enough considering the dire situation our country finds itself in due to the incompetence and corruption of the Republican majority.

From the Boston Globe:

House Democratic leaders hope the “New Direction” platform they outlined yesterday will persuade voters to select Democratic candidates in this fall’s mid-term congressional elections. Though House Democrats bristle at comparisons to Republicans’ 1994 “Contract With America,” the wide range of domestic proposals represent an answer to the GOP’s oft-repeated charge that Democrats lack ideas for governing.

“This is a unified Democratic message,” House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said yesterday in an interview.
This is a national message about core values that the Democratic Party will fight for and take us in a new direction. Democrats are wedded to that. It defines us, rather than have the Republicans define us.”

To read the “new direction” platform, click here.

My question is how much do you think the DNC’s consultants got paid to come up with this tired, old, worn-out message? Here’s another suggestion rather than “a new direction.”

“A NEW CONSULTANT!”

If the Democrats take back the House of Represenatives in 2006, Rep. John Murtha has announced that he will run for Speaker of the House. This annoucement is on the heels of a number of stories regarding the Democrats unhappiness with Rep. Nancy Pelosi.

Also in the race is Rep. Steny Hoyer from Maryland. He is currently the Minority Whip of the House.

Listen, I like Murtha more than Pelosi and Hoyer. But bottom line, if the Democrats manage to do the unthinkable and win back the House in 2006, Pelosi will have no problem taking the post of Speaker. Just no way a dark horse will beat her if she’s seen as being a succesful part of the team that helped to swing the House.

From CNN.com:

If we prevail as I hope and know we will, and return to the majority this next Congress, I have decided to run for the open seat of the majority leader,” Murtha said in a letter to his Democratic colleagues.

“I would appreciate your consideration and vote and look forward to speaking to you personally about my decision.”

Murtha’s spokeswoman, Cindy Abram, provided a copy of the letter to CNN.

There was no immediate comment on Murtha’s announcement from the current minority leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California.