Bitter end for Pelosi, the US Speaker
US Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (L) and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) chairman Chris Van Hollen pose for photographers at DCCC headquarters in Washington on November 2, 2010. AFP | Nicholas KAMM
WASHINGTON, Wednesday
Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to serve as US speaker of the House, appeared out of a job today after a short but productive four years in office as Republicans retook the chamber she ran with gusto.
Ms Pelosi, 70, won the distinction of being the highest woman ever elected to office in the United States. But while she earned the affection of Democrats for her strict and skillful running of the 435-seat House of Representatives, she swiftly became the woman the Republicans most loved to hate.
Always impeccably turned out, the senator from California is an influential and powerful lawmaker and a charismatic speaker. President Barack Obama has credited her with helping to push through some of his key reforms.
Married to a millionaire and a mother of five, Pelosi won admirers in party ranks for her fund-raising abilities as well as her success in uniting Democrats against Republican legislation.
But some Republicans have spoofed her as Disney’s would-be Dalmatian skinner “Cruella de Vil,” and portrayed her as a “wicked witch” of high taxes in a television commercial that sees her challenger melt her down to nothing with a bucket of water.
Pelosi, whose office says she has raised 52.3 million dollars this election cycle and held 212 political events in 24 US states plus Puerto Rico, recently shrugged off the attacks.
If “no one’s talking about you, you have to wonder what you were doing,” she said, calling the often personal criticism the “highest compliment” and stressing US politics requires “a suit of armor” and the ability “to take a punch.”
Pelosi, who as House speaker is technically is third in line to the presidency after Mr Obama and VP Joe Biden, now looks set to be replaced by House Minority Leader John Boehner come January when the new House gathers for the first time. Boehner has described himself as “hopping mad” over some of Pelosi’s hardball tactics — notably the 11th-hour unveiling of the text of the controversial climate bill. There have been many women advisers to US presidents, three women US secretaries of state, and two women US vice presidential hopefuls from major parties. But Ms Pelosi was the first to be House speaker. (AFP)
