San Francisco Chronicle: Pelosi seeks input from diverse array of confidants

[DeepModem Mom]

Pelosi seeks input from diverse array of confidants
Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Washington -- All eyes in the capital are fixed on Rep. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco as she prepares to be sworn in Jan. 4 as the nation's first female House speaker. But less notice has been paid to the lawmakers, lobbyists, aides, business leaders and friends who will be whispering in her ear as she leads a new Democratic Congress.

Among the group: a pioneering Silicon Valley investment banker; a San Francisco politician with a penchant for expressing himself in four-letter words; and a 32-year veteran of Congress from the East Bay whom President Bush dubbed "Big George."

Financier Bill Hambrecht, former state Senate leader John Burton and Democratic Rep. George Miller of Martinez are just a few of the insiders who make up House Speaker-to-be Pelosi's circle of advisers and confidants.

Not surprisingly, the list includes many of the Bay Area's best-known power brokers, from former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown to California Sen. Barbara Boxer to Rep. Anna Eshoo of Palo Alto, who is one of Pelosi's closest friends in Congress....

Pelosi's circle is filled with Silicon Valley heavyweights. She has long-standing ties to investment banker Sandy Robertson and venture capitalists Tom Perkins and John Doerr. More recently, she befriended Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as well as Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers, an ally and major donor to Republican President Bush.

Her friends say no list of advisers is complete without including her family. Her husband, Paul, eschews a public role, but is a key counselor and confidant. Her older brother, Thomas D'Alesandro III, a former Baltimore mayor, acts as a sounding board....

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/12/19/MNGVHN29211.DTL