Chairwoman of the Old Boys’ Club
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi enrages Republicans because she is so effective.
By Eleanor Clift
Newsweek Web Exclusive
Mar 24, 2010
It was after the Democrats' loss of Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in Massachusetts, when health care seemed dead and Democrats were in a deep funk, that Nancy Pelosi made me a believer. "You can always find a way," she told the skeptical columnists and pundits gathered in her office. If the election results close one door to reforming the health-care system, you go to the gate; if the gate's locked, you climb over the fence; if it's too high, you pole-vault in; and if that doesn't work, you parachute in.
Pelosi is that rare public official in Washington who, when she says she'll get something done you can take it to the bank, or in the case of health care, to the White House. She stood her ground and by all accounts helped stiffen the spines of others, notably President Obama, who was getting conflicting advice about whether to press ahead with comprehensive reform or settle for a scaled-back bill that Pelosi privately derided with the lyrics of the children's song "Eensy Weensy Spider."
Pelosi had many of the same pundits back for a return visit Tuesday afternoon. Asked to describe her lowest point in the yearlong fight for health-care reform, Pelosi fixed her eyes on her questioners and said there were no low points. "We saw everything as an opportunity," she declared. "It never occurred to me that it wouldn't pass."
(More here.)
By Eleanor Clift
Newsweek Web Exclusive
Mar 24, 2010
It was after the Democrats' loss of Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in Massachusetts, when health care seemed dead and Democrats were in a deep funk, that Nancy Pelosi made me a believer. "You can always find a way," she told the skeptical columnists and pundits gathered in her office. If the election results close one door to reforming the health-care system, you go to the gate; if the gate's locked, you climb over the fence; if it's too high, you pole-vault in; and if that doesn't work, you parachute in.
Pelosi is that rare public official in Washington who, when she says she'll get something done you can take it to the bank, or in the case of health care, to the White House. She stood her ground and by all accounts helped stiffen the spines of others, notably President Obama, who was getting conflicting advice about whether to press ahead with comprehensive reform or settle for a scaled-back bill that Pelosi privately derided with the lyrics of the children's song "Eensy Weensy Spider."
Pelosi had many of the same pundits back for a return visit Tuesday afternoon. Asked to describe her lowest point in the yearlong fight for health-care reform, Pelosi fixed her eyes on her questioners and said there were no low points. "We saw everything as an opportunity," she declared. "It never occurred to me that it wouldn't pass."
(More here.)
Powered by Blogger
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home