Pelosi makes history, and enemies, as an effective House speaker

By Paul Kane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 3, 2010

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is so unpopular in some places that she often avoids public appearances. During a recent House recess, she hopscotched across the country, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars at closed-door fundraisers, turning up in public only at the White House and in her home town of San Francisco.

But under the Capitol dome, Pelosi is a towering figure, perhaps even a historic one. Capped by her central role in passing the landmark health-care bill in March, the California Democrat, 70, has transformed herself from the caricature of a millionaire liberal with impeccable fashion taste into a speaker on par with the revered Sam Rayburn, according to historians, pollsters and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

Republicans betting on her unpopularity outside of Washington have made the speaker the face of their effort to retake the House this fall, asking donors to "Fire Nancy Pelosi" while showing images of her engulfed in flames. The first tests of that strategy will come later this month as the GOP tries to win two seats long held by Democrats in special elections in Pennsylvania and Hawaii.

But Pelosi girded for this fight years ago, when she outlined a four-step plan for lasting Democratic control of the House. The first two steps came with winning the majority in 2006 and expanding it in 2008.

(More here.)