Nancy Pelosi will rightfully go down as one of the greatest speakers in the history of the U.S. House.
If Pelosi’s first big political test was holding off the far left, her second test required walking moderate Democrats right off a cliff in the name of historic left-wing progress. In 2010, Democrats lost their filibuster-proof majority by losing a special Senate election in Massachusetts of all places. Even Obama saw this surprise Massachusetts defeat as the end for Obamacare. He was ready to cave and replace the massive federal health-care takeover with a series of smaller bills.
In the end, Obamacare passed, and because of it, 63 Democrats predictably lost their seats in the 2010 midterms. Pelosi lost the speakership. Through this process, she did something no recent Republican leader has come close to doing. She proved she was willing to lose political power to get things done. Democrats viewed Obamacare as the holy grail. To them, implementing it was worth the cost.
You don’t have to like Nancy Pelosi or Obamacare to admire this level of leadership and smarts. It’s precisely what has been lacking among congressional Republicans. On the right, the reformist side is so desperate for progress that they sometimes end up tilting at windmills, often at their political peril. Even worse, the larger establishment bloc is not really interested in getting things done. To them, the election itself is the end game.
Republicans love to hate Pelosi, and often for good reason. She was tough and even mean sometimes. On issues like COVID and congressional member stock-trading, she helped break trust with the American people. More broadly, she pushed through many policies that will hurt America badly. This record is nothing to celebrate. But as a purely political matter, Pelosi has been by far the greatest congressional leader of our time. She ran her caucus with tight control.
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