I’m hoping to write some on the historic enactment of health care reform in the coming days; I just got done with my first week of chemotherapy, round two, and so I’m a bit wiped out at the moment.
There are many politicians to thank for getting this done, but one stands out above all others. No, not Barack Obama, though he has now permanently shaken off any accusation that he’s another Jimmy Carter — and though he is now inarguably the most consequential Democratic president since Lyndon Johnson.
No, the politician who deserves the thanks and support of Democrats is Rep. Nancy Patricia D’Alesandro Pelosi, D-Calif., the 60th and current Speaker of the House of Representatives. If not for Pelosi’s firm resolve in the wake of Scott Brown’s election, it is entirely possible that action on health care may have stalled, that the White House may have backed down and offered a politically palatable mishmash of minor proposals and moved on.
Pelosi didn’t want to back down, though, and she used her muscle as Speaker to get the bill through, finding 219 Democrats willing to support an imperfect Senate bill. This was no easy task; this was as impressive as anything Johnson did as Senate Majority Leader. This was the stuff of legend.
According to many reports, there were 68 wavering Democrats coming down the stretch. When presented with the names of the Democrats, Pelosi didn’t divvy them up among her leadership group. She simply said, “I’ll take all 68.” Certainly, she didn’t get all 68. But she got enough of them to get this bill over the line. She made hard deals and massaged egos and acceded to a legally meaningless but symbolically difficult executive order on the Hyde Amendment because that’s what it took to get health care for tens of millions of Americans. That’s a Speaker’s job, and Nancy Pelosi has wielded her gavel more effectively than any in my lifetime, even more effectively than the legendary Tip O’Neill.
Quite simply, Pelosi’s work here has to place her up with the likes of Sam Rayburn — as one of the greatest Speakers of all time. She would have been memorable simply as the first woman to hold the office. She will now be remembered as that, and far more.
Agreed. She was and is magnificent. Executive orders and Stupak deals and unrealized single-payer aspirations aside, she gets things done and gets them done brilliantly. The most powerful American woman in our political history? Too soon to tell, but the leading candidate.
I love this Pelosi anecdote, from Politico. The context is when, after the Scott Brown election, Obama was exploring ways to make HCR smaller.
It’s nice to hear something good about Pelosi. Living in SF, and reading the Chronical online at SFGate, all I ever see is that any mention of Pelosi’s name immediately degenerates into bile and misogyny of the worst kind, hopped up on Tea Party style steroids about how great it will be if she fails at X, Y, and Z.
Is that actually a photo of Pelosi? I don’t think it looks like her.
It is a photo of Pelosi; a lot of media outlets choose to use less flattering pictures of her. I personally love that photo – her strength is just shining through her eyes.
I’m having a bit of culture-shock, because before this the only things I’ve ever heard about Pelosi were negative. So I went and looked her up on wikipedia (not the most scientific of sources, I know) and…the woman’s political record as listed there almost completely matches what I would want in a representative. How could I have not known this before?
And they say we have a liberal media…
I live in the Bay Area and work in SF, and my mom has started calling Nancy Pelosi “our girl.” As in: “Did you see what our girl Nancy did today?” or, “I can’t believe it! It looks like our girl is going to deliver on healthcare!”
We just couldn’t possibly be more proud of the strong women who have come out of the political world of the Bay Area. Barbara Lee, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer … hell, there are even days when I’m a little proud of Diane Feinstein.
—Myca
It’s nice to see that the Democratic Party is finally starting to grow a spine.
The more time goes on, the more impressed I am with Pelosi.
Best of luck with the chemo, Jeff. My FIL (who lives with us) just finished his second round, my aunt is on her fourth of six, and my mother is waiting to here if she will need to start, so we’re all about the chemo over here.