Queens of the Resistance: Nancy Pelosi by Brenda Jones & Krishan Trotman

Author:Brenda Jones & Krishan Trotman [Jones, Brenda & Trotman, Krishan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2020-06-29T00:00:00+00:00

BORN TO WIN

Baby, how you feeling?

Feeling good as hell.

—Lizzo, “Good as Hell”

Nancy Pelosi didn’t make public her ambition to become the first female Speaker of the House. Mainly, she kept it to herself. The guys might never see her coming because they tended to underestimate a woman, and she could use that to her advantage. However, the moves she was making signaled the potential that she might want to do more. Her name was thrown into the mix in all kinds of leadership discussions, including as a vice-presidential nominee, but she thought her liberal politics were not a suitable match to a political climate that was growing more and more conservative. Plus, she liked thinking for herself, not conforming to the ideas of a president, which is what a vice president is supposed to do.

No, what appealed to her, on the low, was the role of Speaker of the House.

Let’s back up for a second, girlfriend. Just to be sure we’re all on the same page, here are the basics about what it means to be Speaker of the House. First, it means you’re in charge of the House and its proceedings. That means swearing in new members, presiding over the chamber (aka wielding that gavel like a boss), running the steering committee, which assigns party members to House committees, and more. Being Speaker means you’re the top dog of your party, which, historically, has been the majority party—getting elected requires a majority of the House vote, so it’s always worked that way. Ranking below the Speaker in the party, in order, are the Majority Leader, the Majority Whip, the Assistant Speaker, and the party’s Caucus Chairman. (All of those except Assistant Speaker have counterparts in the minority party.) The Speaker of the House is also next in line for the presidency, after the vice president.

Basically, it’s an immensely powerful position that favors those who think strategically—and when Pelosi first started thinking about it, only men had ever held that gavel. Men who tended to be remembered, either for their greatness or the harm they could cause with all that power. Men like Tip O’Neill, who retired after a long tenure just a few months before Pelosi’s election; he was beloved by his colleagues and renowned for his generosity and dedication to good government. Or like Newt Gingrich, who became Speaker in 1995 at the peak of a polarizing career—he might be best known for leading the impeachment proceedings against President Clinton and generally sending decorum in American politics down the drain.

So sure, vice president of the United States is a prestigious title, but in Pelosi’s mind, Speaker was the right role for her, if the opportunity were to present itself.

And in order to be Speaker one day, first she had to become the whip.

Pelosi’s penchant for class and decorum made it unlikely she would ever show the hand of her ambition. She would never be so indiscreet. But the seas parted when a member of the California delegation, Rep.

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