Nancy Pelosi's Liberal Hometown Newspaper Literally Begs Her Not To Run for Speaker
There has been a recent upswell of dissent among the rank-and-file of the Democratic Party against House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who seems assured that she will resume her role as Speaker of the House when Democrats retake control of Congress with a “blue wave” in the 2018 midterm elections.
Of course, the “blue wave” of energized liberal voters is far from certain, as is the prospect of Democrats regaining majorities in either the House or the Senate, to say nothing of the decreasing support for Pelosi to continue to lead the party.
Indeed, even the editorial board of a major hometown newspaper for Pelosi, The Sacramento Bee, is urging her to reconsider her intentions to remain at the head of the Democratic Party following November’s elections.
In a piece aptly titled “Dear Nancy Pelosi: It’s not about you, it’s about your party and country. Forget being speaker,” the editorial board literally begged her to put aside her “personal ambitions” and make it clear that she would not seek the speakership again if Democrats win.
“The Republican Party is now clearly the party of Donald Trump. The Democratic Party cannot be seen as the party of Nancy Pelosi and win in November,” wrote the board.
“This is much bigger than her. To retake control of the House, Democrats need to gain at least 23 seats in November. That’s no easy task,” the editorial continued.
“And it’s even more difficult now that Pelosi’s future has become a distracting campaign issue for Democrats in key swing districts, where they need moderate and even Republican votes to win,” the board added.
The editorial board noted that at least 45 Democrat nominees and at least 10 Democrat House incumbents have already gone on record that they will not support Pelosi becoming speaker once again. They also noted that, yet again, Republicans made Pelosi a central feature of their campaign ads — though, to be fair, those ads really sort of write themselves.
The board also noted that President Donald Trump has keyed in on Pelosi as a frequent target, even sarcastically tweeting in her support against the rising wave of young Democrats who seek to oust her as a party leader.
Democrats, please do not distance yourselves from Nancy Pelosi. She is a wonderful person whose ideas & policies may be bad, but who should definitely be given a 4th chance. She is trying very hard & has every right to take down the Democrat Party if she has veered too far left!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2018
“On the other hand, Pelosi isn’t doing herself any favors by playing the victim,” the editors wrote. “Asked during a Sunday interview about Democrats opposing her for speaker, she accused MSNBC of being on a ‘jag’ against her. Better than most, she ought to know that’s getting precariously close to Trump calling any critical coverage ‘fake news.'”
The editorial board did note that Pelosi still maintained some support among Democrats and the media, who have touted her accomplishments as speaker — for which she supposedly gets little credit — such as the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the economic stimulus bill and the Dodd-Frank financial reforms after the 2008 recession.
As an aside, those “accomplishments” don’t really win much favor for Pelosi among a majority of Americans who opposed those and other monstrous pieces of progressive legislation that arguably gave rise to a resurgent conservative movement that recaptured the House in 2010 and the Senate in 2014.
The editorial board attempted to glean the Democratic Party’s message for 2018, but even they didn’t have a full grasp on it, and concluded that Pelosi is no longer the most effective messenger in that regard. They further worried that Pelosi would increasingly become an “extremely or very important factor” in the decisions of voters, in light of the GOP attack ads, and pointed out that Democrats could use some “fresh faces in leadership.”
The board acknowledged the historical precedent Pelosi set as first female Speaker of the House, and suggested that Pelosi could continue to represent California in Congress, but concluded that “if she truly believes what she says about how important it is for Democrats to retake the House so they can stop Trump, she must accept that it can’t be with her as speaker.”
This was a scorcher of an editorial against Pelosi’s continued role in the leadership of the Democratic Party, and it came from one of Pelosi’s own hometown newspapers, making it sting that much more. Whether she wants to admit it yet or not, her time at the head of her party is about to draw to a close.
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