Pelosi Takes the Heat: 'If I Were Not Effective They Wouldn't Care About Me'

[babylonsister]

Pelosi Takes the Heat: 'If I Were Not Effective They Wouldn't Care About Me'
9 hours ago

Melinda Henneberger
Editor in Chief

snip//

It's little wonder her approval rating is melting faster than the wicked witch she's been portrayed as; yours would be, too, if you were starring in coast-to-coast ads as everything from a reckless driver to a monster. (This one, "The Attack of the 50-Foot Pelosi,'' shows her being electrocuted. And almost universally, she's cast as a woman with historically bad hair. Here are a few of the tamer anti-Pelosi messages dominating this campaign season – oh, but those are just the Democrats.) Some Democratic House staffers are irritated on her behalf, peeved that the president she helped get elected – just ask Hillary Clinton -- has uttered not a word in her defense. Yet though politicians are a pretty thin-skinned bunch, Pelosi has a reputation among her peers as someone who is not so much impervious to attacks as downright invigorated by them. Which sounded like hooey, I must say, until I asked her how that could be.

"You have to know what you've come here to do,'' she says in an interview in her office. "You didn't come here to be in a popularity contest, you came here to get a job done. And if you're going to do that, you're going to be throwing some punches and you'd better be ready to take some. You're in the arena, so they have to discredit you. If I were not effective they wouldn't care about me." Wait, so she takes the rough treatment as a compliment? Not exactly: "I take it as a sign of our effectiveness, A. And B, it helps me raise money ... OK?"

It's that slightly bloodless quality – oh, and in politics that is a compliment – that has given her the flexibility to compromise with the same Blue Dog Democrats who are running against her now. It's also what made Pelosi, who doesn't curse or raise her voice, and is one of the best-loved bosses on the Hill, the most powerful woman in American politics. As practical behind closed doors as she is partisan in public, she'll be mentioned in the same breath as Sam Rayburn and "Uncle Joe" Cannon, who was as eager to block reform as she is to ram it through.

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http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/10/24/nancy-pelosi-takes-the-heat-if-i-were-not-effective-they-would/

[pocoloco]

1. Effective enough to take impeachment off the table!

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

4. Fuck that! Effective and productive! Not to mention, the only one with true balls!

I don't care what anyone says, the fact that Nancy put over 400 bills on the table for the Senate, while the cowardly Harry Reid sat on his ass and refused to force the Republicans to filibuster, says a lot.

The real tragedy of this election is that it is likely that Nancy will lose the Speakership. That is absolutely appalling to me!

Yes! Go Nancy!!!! :toast:

[emulatorloo]

5. She and the House did a damn good job.

[glitch]

6. Best branch in DC right now, by far. nt

[malaise]

2. Go Nancy

You are a SF Giant. :yourock:

[babylonsister]

3. I have so much respect for her; she's played an historic role. nt

[butterfly77]

7. Kicked&Recommended!

:dem: