You Go Girl!

  It is indeed lamentable that with the exception of hardcore political junkies, what most Americans know about the incoming leaders of the 110th Congress -- Pelosi, Hoyer, Conyers, Dingel, Rangel Waxman, Skelton, Emanuel, Levin et al comes from what their detractors have been saying about them during the recent campaign.   To listen to O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter and the gang:

• Incoming Ways & Means Chair Charlie Rangel never met a tax hike he did not love.
• Incoming Government Reform Chair Henry Waxman wants to impeach President Bush.
• Incoming Judiciary Chair John Conyers is a Stalinist.
• Incoming House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is far, far left, and
• Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a "Feminazi."   Well guess again.  While it is true that these honorable leaders-in-waiting are not nearly so conservative as the honorable ex-leaders-to-be, they are not even close to being the dangerous, vile, political carnivores they are made out to be.  Again, what most Americans know of these -- and other -- incoming leaders in the House and Senate, they have learned largely from those who sought to damn them to political perdition.

    Let us consider Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi of California's 8th Congressional District [San Francisco].  To listen to the nattering negativists of the right:

• Mrs. Pelosi's position on the political spectrum rests somewhere between Stalin and Mao
• Her greatest joy will be in taxing the middle-class out of existence
• If she had her druthers, God would be banished from the U.S. of A.
• As a liberal Democrat she is undoubtedly on Osama's side
• She hates Israel.

   Really!  Can you imagine that?  If she is so vile, so patently anti-American, how is it that voters in her district have been returning her to office for the past 20 years -- and with margins frequently approaching 85%?  "Well what do you expect?"  The negativists proclaim.  "After all, her district is San Francisco.  Need we say more?"  Yes indeed.  "More" definitely need be said.

   So who is Nancy Pelosi? 

   Speaker-Designate Pelosi, who turned 66 last March, is a native of Baltimore.  According to The Almanac of American Politics, "[Pelosi] has the energy and shrewdness of one who has handled the most delicate political chores, and the charm and unflappability of one who is the mother of five children."   One of the most important things to know about her is that she is a D'Alesandro.  To be a D'Alesandro in Baltimore is roughly equivalent to being a Kennedy in Boston, a Daily in Chicago, or a Long in Louisiana.   

   Mrs. Pelosi's father, Thomas D'Alesandro, Jr. [1903-1987] served in the House of Representatives from 1939-1947 and was mayor of Baltimore for 12 years after that.  Her brother, Thomas D'Alesandro III, was mayor from 1967 to 1971.  A 1962 graduate of Trinity College in Washington, D.C., Nancy D'Alesandro moved out to San Francisco, where she married Paul Pelosi, a highly successful businessman and raised their five children.

   Following the 1987 death of Congresswoman Sala Burton -- who had taken over the seat from her deceased husband Phil --  Pelosi, who had been actively involved in Democratic Party affairs, was urged to run for the open seat.  Once reaching Capitol Hill, she immediately addressed an issue of local sensitivity to her San Francisco constituents: the aftermath of the notorious Tienanmen Square massacre.  Pelosi sponsored an amendment to give Chinese students the right to remain in the United States; President George H.W. Bush vetoed it.  From that point on, Pelosi became [and remains] one of the most constant and articulate voices on the issue of human rights in China.  In 1999, when then-President Clinton agreed to terms for China's entry into the World Trade Organization, Pelosi led an even more furious opposition to normal trade relations with China.  At one point she claimed that Clinton was "either in denial or ill-informed about what's going on in China."  Despite numerous setbacks, she has maintained her human rights vigils.

   A representative with an almost perfect liberal voting record, Pelosi nonetheless has proved time and again that she is ready, willing and able to work with Republicans.  In 2001, then-House Minority Whip David Bonior decided to give up his seat and run for Michigan governor.  Spotting an opening, Pelosi ran for Bonior's post, defeating current Majority Leader in-waiting Steny Hoyer by a small margin.  In that race she stressed the party's need to refocus on grassroots organization, money and message.  One of her early supporters, Hawaii's Neil Abercrombie called her "a glamorous grandmother who knocks people off their feet." 

   As Minority Whip, Pelosi impressed her Democratic colleagues with her intelligence, gutsiness, and politesse.  When Minority Leader Dick Gephardt announced his retirement from Congress, Pelosi jumped into the race with both feet, winning that post by the wide margin of 177-29.  As House Minority Leader, she brought a burst of energy -- and favorable press coverage -- to a party that badly needed both.  She also scored high marks with her colleagues for the way she selected members for House committee vacancies and developing [despite what conservative pundits say] a coherent message highlighting the shortcomings of the Bush agenda.

   One largely overlooked thread in the D'Alesandro-Pelosi saga deals with Jews, Judaism, and Israel.  Nancy D'Alesandro Pelosi grew up in a largely Jewish neighborhood, attending, as she once recalled "nearly a bar or bat mitzvahs a week during my early teenage years."  Unbeknownst to all but a small handful, there is actually a soccer field named after her family in the Haifa area. 

   The Pelosis have a Jewish son-in-law and two Jewish grandchildren.  On the Speaker-Designate's 63rd birthday, she received a call from these grandchildren, who sang "Happy Birthday" to their grandmother in . . . Hebrew.  As Mrs. Pelosi recalled, "that was my real birthday gift."  Pelosi's support for Israel has been measured, intelligent and unstinting.  On numerous occasions, she has been quoted as saying that "The creation of the modern state of Israel is the single greatest achievement of the Twentieth Century."

   OK, so perhaps Nancy Pelosi -- the nation's first female [and first Italian] House Speaker, the person who will be third in line for the Presidency, isn't quite so bad as her detractors make her out to be.  What sort of a Speaker will she make?  How will she compare to say, Dennis Hastert or Newt Gingrich?  Well, she has stated for the record that there will be absolutely NO Presidential witch-hunts while she wields the House gavel. While she recognizes that some members of the Democratic Caucus may well wish to play "gotcha!" politics and look to impeach President George W. Bush, she has made it clear that there are far more important issues to consider; issues like raising the federal minimum wage, repealing the Medicare Drug Prescription boondoggle, moving the nation in the direction of energy independence, taking Global Warming very, very seriously, and creating a more intelligent policy in Iraq.

   Will she succeed?  At this point only God knows.  One thing I do know however: Nancy Pelosi will steer a dynamic, rigorously transparent and intelligent course between the shoals of partisan politics and Presidential veto.  She will bring dignity, articulation and class back to a post that has been held for the past dozen years by a cheerleader and a coach. Do bear in mind that there will always be those who assume that they know everything there is to know about Speaker Pelosi, and don't like her . . . because she is a woman, because she is a "Stalinist Feminazi" or simply because she is from San Francisco. 

   Forget all about that claptrap Madam Speaker, and just do the kind of job we political junkies know you're capable of doing.

   You go girl!   

Addendum:  Please note that the subtitle at the top of this Blog has been changed from "Taking back the country from Bush, Rummy . . . " to simply "All Politics, All the Time."  After Tuesday's electoral miracle, we figured that our alternatives were: engaging in an orgy of schadenfreude or merely changing the message.  And so, we changed the subtitle . . .