When it's my
turn to say what I'm grateful for this Thanksgiving, I'm tempted to say that
it's Nancy Pelosi, and here's why...
Back in 1987,
when Nancy Pelosi first came to Congress, my boss at the time,
who was one of her new colleagues, had quite a crush on her. In fact, I
distinctly recall being at one of the famous receptions that were held for
members of Congress each night — there could be three or four in one evening —
when my boss spied Pelosi entering the room.
“Ooh, there’s
Nancy Pelosi,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. “I’ll be right back.” And, as
he did with all the pretty women who worked on the Hill, he dashed over to her
and tried to woo her with his awkward charm.
Was this
sexist, superficial, and shallow? Of course, it was. This was the 1980s, and
Congress was full of middle-aged men, like the congressman I worked for, who
didn’t look at women as leaders. To these men with limitless libidos, women
were afterthoughts, and I know this from experience. I remember all the crude
talk among all the men who worked on the Hill.
If #metoo was
around during that time, Pelosi and a scattering of other women would be the
only members left in Congress. During her speakership, she cleaned up the House
and restored honor to the role of Speaker. She opened the door for more women
in the House.
Before Pelosi,
there were some women in the House who made their mark. In 1976 at the
Democratic National Convention, Texas Congresswoman Barbara Jordan became the
first African American woman to deliver a keynote address at a national
major-party convention. President Jimmy Carter seriously considered Jordan as
his running mate.
There was also
the flamboyant New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug, who famously fought for
women’s equality and knew how to shock-talk her way into the headlines.
And you had
Colorado Congresswoman Pat Schroeder, who became the first woman to serve on
the House Armed Services Committee. She toyed with the idea of seeking the 1988
Democratic presidential nomination, but she famously cried when she decided not
to enter the presidential primaries and was lampooned mercilessly for doing so,
including on Saturday Night Live. Those chauvinistic men in
Congress took a lot of pleasure in making fun of an "emotional gal."
At the time
Pelosi arrived, the office of the speaker would begin to be put through myriad
scandals, all self-inflicted by the men who held the highest job in the House.
First, you had Texas Congressman Jim Wright. He was speaker of the House
beginning in 1987, succeeding the legendary Tip O’Neill of Massachusetts, who
had just retired. The majority leader was Tom Foley of Washington, and the
minority leader was Bob Michel. All middle-aged white men. Wright would be
forced out due to an ethics investigation and Foley took the job.
And Foley,
embarrassingly, became the first speaker in history to lose his re-election
campaign back home in Washington state. Foley's loss was a decisive blow to the
Democratic party, which for the first time in decades, lost the House to
upstart Newt Gingrich. And after Foley, there were foolish follies.
Gingrich
ascended to Speaker in 1995 after the Republicans picked up 54 seats in the
House during the first midterm election of Bill Clinton's presidency. Gingrich
was reprimanded by the House in 1997, also due to an ethics investigation, and
resigned as speaker the following year. It was Gingrich who brought down
Wright, so the irony of Speaker Gingrich flouting House ethics rules like
Speaker Wright was not lost on anyone.
Soon
thereafter, something was disclosed publicly that was an open secret on the
Hill. Gingrich had an extramarital affair with a congressional employee 23
years his junior the entire time he was throwing shade at Clinton for Monica
Lewinsky. Again, the good ol' boys kept their mouths shut about Gingrich
gallivanting openly around Capitol Hill with his lover.
Gingrich
wanted to turn the speakership over to a friend, House Appropriations Chair Bob
Livingston; however, Livingston had to decline because he too was having an
extramarital affair, all the while calling for Clinton’s resignation. Hypocrisy
runs rampant around the speaker's chair.
See what I
mean about these white middle-aged two-timing chauvinistic men who dominated
the speakership? Wait, now things really took a turn. Dennis Hastert ultimately succeeded Gingrich. He was
the quiet guy from Illinois. And we didn't realize how quiet he was and how
important quiet was to him. Hastert served eight years before Pelosi took the
top job in the House in 2007.
And we all
know what happened to Hastert. He went to prison for over a year because for
decades he'd been paying a man to keep quiet about being molested. It seems
Hastert had a penchant for sexually abusing young men while he was a high
school wrestling coach.
You must
wonder if the speakership was jinxed. Or if it was because of these,
middle-aged white men couldn’t keep their johnsons in their trousers. Well,
Nancy Pelosi came in, took charge like nobody’s business, and brought dignity
to the position of speaker after so much turmoil.
It’s not
hyperbole to say that Pelosi will go down as perhaps the House’s greatest
speaker. She masterfully steered through so many important bills, like
Obamacare, stood up for so many important issues, like women’s, trans,
minority, and LGBTQ+ rights, and spoke out when no one else would, most
memorably against former president Donald Trump. And perhaps most importantly,
she changed the culture of the House. She recruited more women to run and
helped get more women elected. There are now 123 women in the House — a record,
and Nancy Pelosi is responsible for making that happen.
If it wasn’t
for Pelosi, Trump would not have been impeached twice, and there would be no
January 6 committee. She initiated all three actions. God knows what else Trump
would have gotten away with without her. Pelosi was more than a firewall, more
than an instigator of investigations, and more of a woman than the wimpy Trump
could handle. Trump never encountered any woman — or man — who fought back at
him like Pelosi. She owned him. He knew that. And he cowered in her presence.
The time that
she clapped down at him like a sarcastic mother scolding a child after his
State of the Union speech in 2019 was priceless. And the next year ripping a
copy of his speech to shreds — indelible and iconic images that will live in
the lexicon of famous speaker moments. Pelosi didn’t take crap from anyone,
especially Trump. She could have cared less that he called her "Crazy
Nancy." Many feared his childish nicknames. Not Pelosi. She treated Trump
like the child he is.
Pelosi
announced that she isn’t running for a leadership spot, but she will
still be a member of the House, and a savant and strategist for the next crop
of Democratic leaders. She more or less said that Kevin McCarthy wouldn’t make
a great speaker, and she will be proven right as always.
The idiotic
McCarthy went gleeful and giddy after she withdrew from the leadership, crowing
on Fox News, “We have fired Nancy Pelosi!”
Oh, poor naïve
Kevin. He has no idea what's in store for him. Pelosi is 100 times smarter than
he is, and while she’s no longer in the leadership, she will help whip McCarthy
into servility, but in a different and more calculating way than Trump does.
While McCarthy kisses Trump’s ass, Pelosi will knock Kevin down on his. He's
going to regret saying the Republicans fired her because she ain't going
nowhere for now.
Even after all
of this, her intelligence is unmatched, her ability to move the levers of power
unparalleled, and no one rises to the occasion and fights like Pelosi.
Sadly, we seem
to be back to a narrow-minded middle-aged white man running the House. We will
miss the shining star and the dignified and definitive beauty of Nancy Pelosi.
About 20 years
after I left the Hill, I was at a Christmas party in Washington, D.C., and
Speaker Pelosi came through the doors. I thought back to the first time I saw
her with the lothario congressman I worked for in 1987 and had a chuckle. When
she appeared in the room where I was standing, there was an aura about her; she
commanded the room. I remember being in awe: “Ooh, there’s Nancy Pelosi!”
John Casey is editor at large for The
Advocate.
Views expressed
in The Advocate’s opinion articles are
those of the writers and do not necessarily represent the views of The
Advocate or our parent company, Equal Pride.
SOURCE: ADVOCATE
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