The Hill: Pelosi: Be Prepared to Throw Punches

Tuesday, June 24, 2003

Pelosi: Be prepared to throw punches

By Hans Nichols

Proudly sitting in the room once occupied by her hero, the late Speaker Tip O’Neill, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi explains how she’s “eager to turn it back into a Speaker’s office.”

The California Democrat’s poised - if not prim - demeanor belies a driving ambition that have led many colleagues to conclude that she is practicing a style of confrontational politics more reminiscent of former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) than O’Neill (D-Mass.).

But if Gingrich was an ideological bomb-thrower and O’Neill was a savvy local ward politician writ large, Pelosi is rebutting Republican stereotyping of her as a “San Francisco liberal” by sharpening her own political weapons: alliteration and repetition.

“So we’ll have our message, our mobilization, our money. Our three M’s,” said Pelosi as she approached the six-month mark as Rep. Dick Gephardt’s (Mo.) successor as House minority leader.

Pelosi, 63, says she spends a “great deal of my evening time trying to make sure those three M’s are in place.”

With the help of the alliterative talking points that are becoming the signature of her press conferences, the nine-term congresswoman’s future ambitions obviously include becoming the first female Speaker of the House.

“I tell my party members if you have a suggestion, does it meet the test of clarity, credibility and consensus?” she says, offering another alliterative phrase. “So if you have a good idea, well, it may be for you, but is it for us?”

Despite her apparent lack of concern over attacking Republicans on procedural tactics, she balks at comparisons with Gingrich, or the possibility that she will lead a “Pelosi revolution.”

“Whatever avenues Newt Gingrich took to become Speaker of the House, he immediately shut down when he became Speaker, to a large extent,” she said. “He knew how he got there, so he removed that ladder, he closed that door.”

That doesn’t mean Pelosi is averse to mixing it up with the entrenched opposition, as did Gingrich famously did. “The Republicans will take every punch they can get at you. You have to be prepared to take many many punches. But be prepared to throw some too,” she said.

Although Pelosi’s ascension to her party’s top House leadership post threatened to widen the rifts in her caucus, she appears determined to straddle the gap between the centrist and liberal wings by fiercely opposing the president’s and the GOP leadership’s domestic agenda.

“As we’ve seen attacks from the Republicans on issues that are important to us, I’ve seen our leadership come together,” said Rep. Max Sandlin (D-Texas).

“From the beginning, she has been excellent in recognizing all wings of the caucus,” added Sandlin, who noted that three of eight exclusive committee slots went to conservative “Blue Dog” Democrats.

“She’s brought inclusion, that’s something that’s been lacking in the past,” said Sandlin, a chief deputy whip.

Asked about her major accomplishments so far, Pelosi cites her party’s floor unity.

“I’m very pleased that the unity we are developing within our party. 100 percent of the party voted against the Bush budget bill,” she said. “Nearly 100 percent voted against the tax cut.”

In addition to reining in her caucus’ divergent impulses, Pelosi has also had to contend with a GOP-dominated political landscape that is unsettled on many fronts.

The new campaign finance legislation has put many aspects of party-building and fundraising into legal limbo. The once tranquil view from her East Front Capitol office is marred by the pounding construction of the Capitol Visitor Center, while the nearby Democratic National Committee headquarters is also undergoing a substantial remodel. “I came into office with a lot of new circumstances,” she said.

“It is legally, physically and personally challenging with everything we have to deal with,” said Pelosi, from her unadorned, whose imperial blue walls are still lonesome for the art work she hasn’t had time to find.

At this stage of the election cycle, Pelosi is assessing prospective candidates’ ability with the last two M’s - mobilization and money. “We have to be very cold-blooded in the choices of the candidates. This is not about sentimentality, there is a lot at stake here,” she said. Of those two “M’s,” Pelosi is placing less emphasis on the money component.

“Candidates have been used to people saying to them can you raise X amount of dollars by such and such a date. My question to them now is can you have a thousand volunteers signed up to work for you by such and such a date.

“Money is fungible. We can get it, if we have a race. If we have candidates we can get it, but if people aren’t attracted to you in your own district, then why should we think that you will have the capability to win.”

That leaves Pelosi, along with her leadership team, the task of raising money and delivering a unified message to voters, which might be an easier task were it not for the nine Democrats running for president. “Well, we can’t control everything, so we can’t whine about it either,” she said.

Still, she is acutely aware that just as the Iraq war winds down and attention seems to be shifting back to domestic issues, the publication of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) book has made it even more difficult for Democrats to craft a unified message.

“I have to admit that I hope she sells those million copies very fast,” Pelosi said of the former first lady’s autobiography, Living History. Despite such problems, Pelosi’s pugnacious style has won her early plaudits from most of her Democratic colleagues.

But some fellow Democrats are not impressed by what they regard as her imperious leadership style. In January, there were some hard feelings over Pelosi’s insistence that she should have the final word on important committee assignment.

She has also been criticized for rewarding her friends with plum positions, like the adjunct leadership slot she created for Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.).

While her Democratic detractors concede that Pelosi has done an adequate job of unifying the caucus, one noted, “It’s always easy to get Democrats unified against Republicans.”

The key to Pelosi’s survival is not the upcoming 2004 election or even the run-up to 2006, they argue. Instead, Pelosi needs to worry about who will wield the long knives should the House Democrats fail to increase their members - or win the majority - in the next two elections.

The true test of party unity, these Democrats say, will be Pelosi’s relationship with her two top deputies on the leadership ladder - Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.) and Caucus Chairman Robert Menendez (N.J.), both of whom have been on the other side of leadership races.

“ Democrats are united in presenting a New Direction for America, one that will make our nation as strong as its people, one that brings opportunity, security, and prosperity to all Americans. ”

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi