House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she has the “overwhelming support” of fellow Democrats in her bid to become minority leader in the next Congress, and says she’s not to blame for the Democrats’ mid-term debacle.
“We didn’t lose the election because of me,” Ms. Pelosi told National Public Radio in an interview that aired Friday morning. “Our members do not accept that.”
Instead, the California Democrat attributes the loss of at least 60 seats to high unemployment and “$100 million of outside, unidentified funding.”
“Any party that cannot turn (9.5% unemployment) into political gains should hang up the gloves,” she said.
Even though many political ads used Pelosi as a albatross around the neck of Democrats across the country, Pelosi's approval rating is around 6% nationally, and the bills that she rammed through are extremely unpopular, it still isn't her fault. It must be Bush's fault. Mmmmk.
Among those rooting for Ms. Pelosi to stick around are Republicans, who are giddy at the prospect of reprising in 2012 the attacks they used in the past election cycle, tying Democratic incumbents around the country to the liberal from San Francisco.
Ms. Pelosi’s reply: Bring it on. “The reason they had to take me down is because I’ve been effective in fighting special interests in Washington, D.C.,” Ms. Pelosi said, citing the health insurance and financial services industries. “I’m effective. They had to take me out. I’m also the most significant attractor to support for the Democrats.”
“So, I’m not looking back on this,” Ms. Pelosi said. “They asked me to run, I’m running. We don’t let the Republicans choose our leaders, and again, our members understand, they made me a target because I’m effective, politically and policy-wise.”
She was "effective" because she had such a huge majority in the House. Will she have as much of a hold on the blue dogs that are left? No, the few blue dogs that survived the election will be scared to death to back anything that would be even close to liberal.
The only shot she has is if she can move to the center and work with the Republican majority. Unfortunately, I don't think that she has it in her. She doesn't even think that she does anything wrong. So, she won't feel any need at all to change course.
Considering that the Democrats that are left are hugely liberal, I could see her winning the post, again, but it would not be wise for the Democrats to repeat history because they haven't learned from it.
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