It is important to give Nancy Pelosi her due. She has now been assured of four more years as either Speaker of the House or Minority Leader if the GOP takes back control of the Hose majority in 2020. She completely out – dueled the small group of Dem House rebels who publicly opposed her continuation as House Speaker. They considered her too old school and too enamored with the veteran Dem leadership. They did not think there were enough avenues open to newer representatives to make a name for themselves and rise through the ranks to leadership positions. They claimed that someone from their group could do a better job than Pelosi to lead the Dems in the lead up to 2020.
As this article in Bloomberg News argues, these frustrated Representatives underestimated one key point in their lobbying for her ouster. When a political party demolishes the other side in a national election, it makes no sense to abandon the Minority Leader who helped orchestrate that win.
Nancy Pelosi, in fact, played a huge role in the Dems successful Mid-Term elections. She understood her House representatives strengths and weaknesses and her advice and counsel assisted candidates in emphasizing issues which resonated with voters.
Pelosi brings other key skills to the position of Speaker besides winning elections.. Her knowledge of the House’s institutional history is immense as are her long established comfortable relationships with veteran representatives. Dem Representatives respect her prowess as a fighter because they have witnessed her steely nerves in the trenches as well as her ability to go toe to toe with the GOP leaders. Due to her established skills at successfully maneuvering the traditionally unwieldy Democrat conference (like herding cats, some say), she will be able to put the House Dems in a perfect position to pursue their progressive legislative initiatives.
This week viewers got a chance to see Pelosi at her best in the live, tense meeting of the government’s triumvirate of Pelosi, Schumer and Trump. While Schumer and Trump’s raised their voices, faced off with belligerent postures and interruptions, Pelosi remained calm and composed. She made some debate points against Trump which he reacted to with scowls and a red face. Later Pelosi and Trump spoke further on the phone. So despite the fact she scored points with her arguments she still was able to keep the communication lines with Trump open.
For all of these reasons, Pelosi can make sure that the House will hit the ground running in January and, immediately begin hearings on various legislation and investigations. The Resistance can find comfort during these fraught and dangerous times that she will be leading the House as Speaker. In retrospect , the idea of breaking in a new Speaker at this time now seems like a very bad idea.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-12-14/how-pelosi-won-again?srnd=premium