She's a strong woman - and donald crumples before tough women. My money is on Ms. Pelosi in any battle with trump.
7
The once-and-future Madame Speaker will hold hard to the Constitutional imperatives that Paul Ryan did not. It is, of course, widely assumed that whatever teeth the departed Mr. Ryan had were pulled by the president shortly after his inauguration, much to his enduring disgrace and to our lasting harm as a Republic.
When Speaker Ryan allowed Devin Nunez free rein to undermine the Mueller investigation, he abdicated his sworn responsibility to provide a check upon an executive who may widely have been suspected of obtaining his office by means of foreign interference. Neither Messrs. Ryan or Nunes had the integrity of their serious duties and obligations in mind when they protected their president.
Ms. Pelosi, whose negative, combative reputation is based entirely on her clear-headed responsibilities rather than partisan zeal, will be like a fresh air blowing through the Augean stables of Greek mythology, a cleansing balm badly needed in this darkened era of Donald Trump.
Godspeed, Madame Speaker.
4
Long live Nancy! She is a great American.
5
I am counting on Nancy Pelosi to fight Trump and the republicans with everything she's got. Fight the good fight Nancy! I am very proud to have a strong, smart Italian American woman representing me.
4
The best thing about Nancy Pelosi is that she spends zero energy on what anyone thinks about her. We should take a leaf from her book, and focus on what matters.
3
Doesn't the constitution consider every citizen to be the president's equal ?
1
Really? “Seal a place in history?” Hadn’t she already done that as speaker or even representative the first time around?
1
Yet, for all her success, she failed miserably in her first stint as Speaker, failing to hold the corrupt Bush administration accountable, which resulted in her turning over nearly the entire country to the Russian/Republican Party. And she has already repeated the biggest mistake of her first speakership, saying publicly that "Impeachment is off the table!" That's the same as supporting corruption and treason!
1
Bravo! I am proud to say that I have been voting for Nancy Pelosi for her entire career. She and I come from a state where women are being recognized for their power and skill. Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris (to name a few) are women who have been and will be major leaders in our nation. We are very proud of them.
3
get the feeling that the same people who like Pelosi fall for rachel Madows tv personality.. Yes? to both , or that is all of you all, I say garggh!! Cant you see an arrogant narcissist when you see one? don't you care about policy??
Once again, I think the headline gets in the way of the news..Nancy Pelosi is NO womens icon...She is a self-serving machiavellian politician, more interested in power than progress.. really...I dare you to find one woman who idolizes Pelosi as an ICON?? compare and contrast to Michele obama. yes, she is an icon.. a leader, someone who sets an example just by living...
1
dear Nancy, you lifted the face but declined to lift the boobs - if you want to look like you are twenty, when you are eighty, I just would like to know what drove that decision? signed, the future generations of women politicians
@grace thorsen or, PS, here's a thought, can you dress like you are ready to work instead of being ready to sit on some mans lap, so I am not thinking about your unlifted boobs? I'm sorry, g irls, I know it is not pc, but I can't stand the way she looks, and what she has done with her body..If you are eighty be eighty!!!! How much of her resurrection was at taxpayers expense??
I am glad she will be on the job. I hope she will mentor other women in the House to be ready for leadership.
6
Re: " ... More than three decades later,
... Ms. Pelosi, 78,
... her remarkable talent for raising money. ..."
Old same, old same.
I'm tired of old rich people holding tenured public office.
They lack a major qualification: consequences. Young people suffer consequences.
We need young people in office, and plenty of them.
(I'm biased. I'm three years younger than Pelosi.)
4
I've always been a fan of Nancy Pelosi, but I think she should take the new members, like Ocasio-Cortez seriously, and their Progressive views - they are the future of our country, and they have the fearlessness and energy to fight against the inertia, and corporate control of our politics, which is holding our country back.
I think Ms. Pelosi would make a huge mistake if she hinders them, or stands in their way.
Don't forget that Ms. Pelosi showed poor judgement by apparently "grooming" Joe Crowley to be next speaker, not even doing the background work to find out that he was never popular or legitimately elected in his District of Queens/Bronx, he was "appointed" by his Queens Machine , and then stayed in power for the next 20 years (expecting to for life) because his Machine intimated and blocked all viable opposition of the ballot He was never legitimate. He even tried (feigning ignorance) to undermine her in the November election by quietly labelling her a "Communist", and getting his team to mount and an underground campaign. Crowley and his corrupt Machine arrogantly underestimated Ocasio-Cortez and her movement, Nancy Pelosi should not do the same. She misread Crowley and did not understand the politics on the ground, or his corrupt background.Voters want fresh idea, and not "more of the same". I hope Madame Pelosi understands this now.
3
@Julia Cahill I agree. Nancy Pelosi should encourage and guide the new Progressives to use their energy and fearlessness to end the inertia in Washington. Speaker Pelosi should use her considerable skills to help the next generation build the country they want. That would be a wonderful legacy.
p.s. As an Astoria resident, I can agree that the cloud of corruption has been lifted with the departure of Crowley and swearing in of the vibrant Ocasio-Cortez, and he was definitely waging a campaign to undermine her in the November election, but alas, his Machine forced local pols to vote him in again (secret voice-vote), as boss of Queens Dems, so he, his family, and cronies can continue their corrupt ways here. We are not fully rid of Crowley yet, but the fact that Nancy Pelosi enabled Crowley is disturbing.
3
Nancy is a feat of nature.
She has been denigrated and attacked to an amazing degree by the GOP, yet she soldiers on undaunted.
She is a skilled politician with savvy, integrity, and a firm sense of her purpose to serve. One may not like her all of her agenda, but it is not hard to respect her skills and dedication.
Hopefully she will be diligent in growing and bringing forth the next generation of Democratic leaders in the House while she takes on Trump with substantive and informed legislative action.
51
@G. Sears. I agree 100%. Unfortunately, she will have to bear being trump's new dartboard and his supporters' new bogeywoman, since Hillary is old news. I feel badly for her, regardless of her strong and resilient character, for being reviled simply because of being an intelligent woman with a cause. A Democratic one.
3
You can count on Donald Trump to confuse Nancy Pelosi with the kind of women whom he knows best and respects least aka his wives, mistresses, daughters and employees.
Yoo can count on Donald Trump imagining that tweeting and speaking nicknames and slurs while watching Fox News during the week and playing golf on the weekends is fighting.
You can count on the son of Confederate Alabama aka Addison Mitchell McConnell, Jr. and the son of New York City Yankee Union aka Charles Ellis Schumer to play to their bloviating bullying buffoonery caricatures.
Too bad Nancy Pelosi lacks a majority in the Senate and the Supreme Court. Too bad Nancy Pelosi is opposed by Benjamin Netanyahu, Vladimir Putin and Mohammed bin Salman.
4
I like Nancy Pelosi, who is obviously a canny politician. I trust her to stand up to President Trump. But I have zero doubt that there are plenty of Democrats who could stand up to the president, who has painted himself into a corner from which he will not escape. The Democratic Party would have new and better leadership if the soon-to-be ocotogenarians and career politicians who head the party did not stymie up-and-coming members. Would you want a 78-year old to head your company? Your university? Your town? No. Even more objectionable is this: Nancy Pelosi, for all her virtues, represents the single worst aspect of American politics: the power of money and big donors. So I am rooting for Nancy Pelosi, but I am rooting even harder for term limits, turnover, and new ideas.
10
@Chris Rasmussen I believe that bringing fresh ideas into governance is important and that this requires more youthful leadership. On the other hand I've also seen the damage forcefully discarding experience and wisdom can do to an institution. Unfortunately I've only paid attention to Pelosi recently and you may well be correct in that the democrats would be better with some younger leadership.
All that said, I haven't seen that really pan out for Republicans in congress who have seemed very divided since 2010 whose election result bare an eerie mirror like similarity to this past election.
What I know is that strong, *continued*, leadership really requires some measure of experience and torch passing; I don't believe a coup by the younger democratic cohort will benefit anyone really. The most optimal outcome, in my mind, is that Pelosi continues to lead and TEACH for the next 4 years before stepping aside.
25
@Chris Rasmussen I am 86, and I will run yer derned town any day.
13
Hopefully Speaker Pelosi can restore some sanity to our government which we are in sore need of right now
5
I think Trump is going to trade legislation for investigation- wonder if Mitch will play along or grind it all to an halt
1
Congratulations Speaker Pelosi! Know that the majority of Americans are supporting you as you stand up for truth, Justice, freedom and democracy! Do not allow the haters and misogynists to get to you, they cannot support you because they are against everything our Nation stands for!
Please, Madame Speaker, do not give Donald one hard earned American taxpayer dollar for his wall! Not a single buck!
Stand strong, Madame Speaker, it will be a wild storm but We, the People believe in you!
Country over Party!
6
I wish Madam Pelosi well.
A diverse bench of newbies can help, many of our problems require out-of-the box solutions that a homogeneous set of people cannot solve. Hurray for the likes of Donna Shalala. Healthcare currently defies a clear solutions (there isn't one, but likely a slew of them).
But it can hurt if Madam Pelosi cannot herd these cats. The narcissism and self-absorption common among elected officials triggers a run to different directions without unity (in search of the spotlight, pet issues, and grouses). Would you please reign in Madam Cortez? Sniping with Trump is a waste of time.
Please do not hesitate to read everyone the riot act. The eye on the prize: white house in 2020, and stopping Trump and his gleeful religious-right and ethnic supremacist republican representatives in congress. That requires more unity than the democrats are likely to display.
15
I hope she bamboozles trump to the point that he turns read as a beat and......
4
I am impressed by Pelosi's political and legislative skill. I hope she becomes President when Trump and Pence are thrown out for corruption.
7
Nancy Pelosi is nothing less than the greatest iron willed feminist symbol of the modern age collapse of the entire GOP. A party that has mostly disintegrated into a loosely knit club of juvenile old men hurling empty insults into microphones, endlessly broadcasting their insecure shortcomings from various ramshackle studios and one invaded old house. All of this providing the men of the GOP with the simulated comfort of cowering in their mother’s basements. With a dwindling number of exceptions, their own wives, children and sisters have now even begun to quietly give up on them in disgust. As this rate, even their surviving mothers are soon to follow.
1
The phoenix can rise from the ashes and does, bearing the marks of the same flame that consumed her precursor.
"To all the little girls who are watching, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams." —Hillary Clinton in her 2016 concession speech
3
I am in her camp
I have her back
I am proud as I watch her skills so cleverly used on those who would underestimate her.
Which, by the way, we women know that frequently our ace in the hole is that some men will not ever see it coming.
3
I wish Pelosi would just go away
3
Yes, she will be sworn in as Speaker, and not a moment too soon for my money. The talk among the Dems to replace her with "fresh young" leadership? Please. Talk about shooting yourself in your political foot.
The country is engaged in political warfare like it has never experienced before with a president who has tested the Constitution like none other before. When you are in political combat the last thing you do is replace an experienced and tried-and-true general, and that is what Speaker Pelosi is.
She has more than demonstrated that she can take on Donald Trump and not be cowed by his bullying tactics. She knows how the House runs and how to push through the Democratic agenda.
If I was scheduled for surgery that could be life-threatening, I would want the most experienced doctor holding the scalpel, not a "fresh-faced" doc with little or no experience.
Time for the Democratic House members to rally behind her with one voice. And it's time to stop bringing a knife to a gun fight.
83
Go Girl! Body slam Trump down to the mat.
4
That picture of soon to be Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Pelosi floors me.
And it ought to floor Trump, too.
Unlike Trump, Pelosi has seen and interacted with some of the most gifted politicians of recent decades. Trump's only interaction with politicians was to write checks to them and jeer from the sidelines.
I can only speculate that given Pelosi knowing, sparring with, and compromising with US Presidents to get things done, one can't help but believe that she finds Trump, well, inadequate.
The only thing I fear is that, in this current coarse, thoughtless, mean atmosphere where social media name-calling and slurs prevail, the insecure Trump may get the upper hand. After all, those are the only things he excels at.
32
@Jung and Easily Freudened
I like your word "inadequate" to describe trump. I'm sure he doesn't play "basketball" well because of the size of his hands!
6
She's already said that she finds that he understands little and never tells the truth. I believe that's exactly how she sees him, inadequate. And, she's been sidestepping his jeers and insults for two years now gracefully. She's more than a match for him.
11
Were the people who voted Democrats back into control of the House hoping for Pelosi to be back in power? Somehow, I don't think so.
3
I certainly did.
10
I wanted Speaker Pelosi back in power! She's brilliant, has tremendous experience that Donald lacks, and she is a long time public servant proven LEADER!
Brava Nancy!
12
@Joe Lynch I certainly did NOT
You have a Country led by a "let's pretent" President. He bypassed Christmas for Wall he "pretended" was Huge Crisis. No mistake America is complicit with government design day one. Electoral College never dealt with so ensures Trump's 2020 win. Newcomers must deal with this stronger than Pelosi has. Her stamina has waned.......
1
Nancy Pelosi and Robert Mueller
Daycare Donnie and Miscreant Mitch McConnell
The children are finally being supervised by adults in Washington DC....and the children are having hissy fits.
Great news for America.
19
Scorecard:
Democracy: 40 (possibly 41); Racists: 0.
Trump loses, Democracy wins.
Game Over, January 3rd, 2019.
7
There are now scores of Democratic women, and about the same number of Republican women as when Ms. Pelosi arrived in the House. Speaks volumes.
14
It’s not the gender, it’s the integrity or lack thereof. Plenty of women in positions of political or corporate power have behaved in reprehensible manner motivated by greed or narrow private interest.
2
Nancy Pelosi is 3 years older than me. I admire her stamina and grace under fire. A smart savvy lawmaker, and when the gavel is passed over to her today I believe the Democrats will release a big sigh of relief.
Nancy's a steady hand, and will legislate for the "people", and no one else.
13
Add another event. Marathon. Because that's the stamina it's gonna take to deal with President. He tests it like no one ever did.
6
I'm a new Pelosi fan! When people say she needs to make room for new younger leaders they never specify exactly who those leaders are or what they should accomplish that Pelosi can't when and if they take charge. Alexandra Ocasio- Cortez is clearly on the list of charismatic newcomers -- and I applaud her idea for a committee on Climate Change-- but she is by no means as experienced politically as Pelosi was when she got the gavel. Right now, in the age of Trump, we need a time-tested powerful leader in charge of the house . Pelosi is right to hang on for now. Plus she is providing a good model of what the first woman President should look like.
99
Exactly! And if Pence is found to be compromised by the Russians....Mrs. Pelosi could very well become Madame President!
13
@Mari
I agree with only one comment: the 2016 presidential election was compromised & fraudulent, thus Pence should be out with or without additional evidence of his being individually compromised by Putin's gang. Here's to #46, (President) Pelosi!!
6
Mrs. Pelosi has had an impressive career. Too bad she doesn't understand that it's time for her to stand aside and let others achieve similar greatness.
At 78 she's become a caricature and an easy target instead of an effective public servant. She's hanging on to serve her ego and her "legacy".
Sad for her, bad for the country.
8
@dbsmith Why are you buying into the Republican playbook? Pelosi will be exactly what we need to counter the president.
58
@dbsmith
I disagree. Nancy Pelosi will be a guiding force for our country. She’s experienced, accomplished, and won’t allow Trump to further degrade what’s left of the bit of respect we may hold for Congress. All of Trump’s checks and balances men such as Kelley and Mattis, have left. The Republicans don’t check Trump. The midterms wer a r ferendum and we need Pelosi in that hot seat to check and balance. Get to it Nancy. The nation needs you now more than ever.
58
@dbsmith On what planet does a competent person relinquish power when her country needs her?
The people who call her a caricature reveal themselves: not her.
65
Give 'em hell, Speaker Pelosi. Your country (the majority with common sense) need you to hold the line and ensure that the GOP and their demented standard-bearer do not completely obliterate progress.
42
I am reassured that we have Nancy Pelosi poised to reclaim her post as Speaker of the House. She is smart, experienced, and cares about the nation and all of its people. It is clear that Republicans do not, that they are comfortable with blatant lies, corruption, and boosting the fortunes of the 1%.
107
@Jessica Nancy just recently introduced us to the concept of a tinkle fight... Can we please get someone who can talk and think at the same time..tinkle fight!! ??good god..
"...long a target of Republicans who have demonized her as a San Francisco liberal..."
My question is, what is the basis of this demonization? What had Pelosi done or stood for that is so distasteful? So terrible? So harmful? I can think of a dozen male GOP officials who have done things from sleazy to criminal off the top of my head with little effort and Republicans do not seem to care. And no one can clearly articulate to me what is so terrible about a "San Francisco liberal", as if that phrase alone should be explanation enough. What a world we live in where over a third of the country supports Trump and believes Pelosi is the embodiment of evil.
59
Good question, the Republicans have a scorched earth policy when it comes to Speaker Pelosi! Just like the loath Mrs. Clinton ....they loath Mrs. Pelosi! Pathetic.
6
Unlike the outgoing, enabling and water-carrying Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi will stand up to this president and call him out for any abuse of power or deliberate misinterpretation of the Constitution.
The president is in over his head in any one-on-one encounter with Pelosi and he know it. Pelosi is this president’s and Republicans’ worst nightmare. For the first time in his dysfunctional administration, the president will now be held accountable for his missteps and wrongdoing. Ryan gave him a pass for two years but those days are long gone.
118
I've always thought that the greatest modern Speaker of the House was Sam Rayburn. I'm not so sure anymore. Nancy Pelosi is the Republicans' worst nightmare come true.
She will shred the opposition not by combat but by persuasion. She is no firebrand. She is a consummate person of the House and knows how it works.
May God bless and keep her in these trying times. She is the right person for the moment.
67
And so it begins, Mr. President. Just try threatening or buying the silence of this woman. Go ahead, make Nancy's day.
66
Pelosi as speaker is a mistake, just like Warren, Biden, and Sanders as candidates would be, and Schumer. The Democrats need to serve up people who aren't highly polarizing crusty septuagenarians and instead find those more interested in helping people rather than obtaining and hanging on to power.
2
@H
I agree on most points, but Biden is not highly polarizing.
@H In my book, the term "polarizing" really means "able to stand up for the right policies against those who promote the wrong ones."
7
You are completely wrong! Mrs. Pelosi is very experienced and savvy! She will be a formidable force against the fake president!
BTW stop talking about age! In many cultures, the elders are esteemed and honored! Her age is a number!
1
Ms. Pelosi certainly has had a remarkable career and someone many can look up to and emulate. That being said, nothing is sadder, and sometimes more damaging, then someone who does not know when it is time to go.
5
@Mind boggling
It is not time for Nancy Pelosi to go.
Someone is not paying attention.
2
Pelosi is a brilliant, seasoned and highly experienced politician....something that Donald will never be! She will chew him up and spit him out!
2
And, like George Soros & Hillary Clinton, she apparently lives under the beds of some of Trump's most ardent supporters.
Boo!
4
Ms. Pelosi's rise to power from SanFrancisco ward heel to Speaker of the House has only one theme. Accumulation of Personal Wealth. Beyond that, Ms. Pelosi has actually accomplished very little that her constituency can consider positive. Oh yeah, Ms. Pelosi postures with indignant outrage about various percieved evils in society, and then claims that something will be done to right all wrongs.....but then......nothing ever happens.....except she gets re-elected and her personal bank account gets even bigger.
Nancy...just off a tax-payer funded expensive vacation in Hawaii ... is now telling us that a shutdown is all Trumps fault and therefore Trump must be impeached..
Doesnt anybody ever think about this and conclude its the most ridiculous comment ever made??
#1.....60% of the Budget was approved, on Time, last Sept 2018! All that remains are the earmarks, the personal pet projects, the boondoggles....which Nancy Pelosi's House already approved.
#2...If anyone deserves blame...its the SENATE, which is holding up approval of a4.5 Trilllion Budget because of a drop in the bucket amount of boondoggle funding for a Wall that everyone already understands will never get built. This is the most petty disagreement of all time....and we need to march on WashDC and tar and feather every Senator we can catch. GOP and Dem alike.
Nancy Pelosi should be under investigation for ethics violations.
1
Proof that the tax payers funded her vacay? Your evidence? :/
5
Thank you for "Icon of Female Power" article on Nancy Pelosi. We need her now, more than ever.
24
I wish her the best! She is a smart, tactful, articulate person who can admirably represent the Democratic party and America while we are absent a person fit for the presidency!
17
Nancy P. is the Queen of Congress -- Long may she reign!
Trump tried his best to vilify her. He tweet trashed her reputation and good name. Thankfully, this time his toxic name calling and personal attacks failed miserably.
Nancy Pelosi is going to save us, even the ones who don't deserve saving.
N.N.P. is a national treasure, and should be treated accordingly.
25
More than once in these comments I have suggested Ms Pelosi should get out of the way for fresh leadership. I can only hope her abilities to recognize a New Democratic Party driven by better ideas and impatient membership matches her political cunning and tenacity.
5
When Trump and Pence are removed from office, she will become President!
PROSECUTE RUSSIAGATE!
21
In online comments at many websites Ms. Pelosi is characterized as out of touch, over the hill, senile, incompetent, and much worse. Check out the Matt Drudge site. On the other hand, don't.
One would think that those who oppose the Democratic legislative agenda would be pleased to have an incompetent leading the pursuit of that agenda.
Of course, those on the other side of the aisle, who know how Congress works, and know her abilities, fear her skill as a legislator, and would love to see her deposed.
The truth is she is really without peer, and history will remember her brilliance.
She has been married to the same man for 55 years, has five children, and numerous grandchildren, and there has never been a hint of scandal regarding her marriage, or about anyone
in her large family. Shame on such San Francisco values !
51
I hope the house Democrats make her speaker again. Now is not the time to elect a possibly very capable yet inexperienced speaker of the house. We have an unhinged and inexperienced president who is seriously damaging our country. Love her or hate her Pelosi has the chops to stand up to the POTUS.
72
As a landscape architect, I worked for a woman owned business (ha - my wife's). I also am old enough to have witnessed, and supported the inclusion of women in all male bastions such at the Rotary Club. Such vehemence at the changes, and now, it seems all like so much about nothing.
Kudos to Pelosi for getting where she is, the tough way. She has her toughest job now. Wish her the very best. You go, girl!
75
@William Menke
Lets encourage Pelosi to actively and intentionally mentor other women colleagues to succeed. Especially young women who are now in Congress !!
3
@Scott do they need to wear stilletos, face-lifts, and pantyline revealing dresses at eighty?? Or can Nancy finally relax and look like a human, ready to work, just to set an example for future generations.?
There is a simple solution to this problem now. OUR four living past presidents must join forces, along with OUR other dedicated civil servants, to save OUR United States of America. They must put The Con Don, Traitor Mitch McConnell, VP Mike Pence and every cabinet, regulatory, judicial and other appointed position where The Con Don put his Robber Baron brethren in place under Citizen's Arrest and detain them until WE THE PEOPLE replace them with fair elections. OUR new Speaker of the House, Ms. Nancy Pelosi, will become President of OUR United States while we sort things out.
WE THE PEOPLE are in Constitutional Crisis. The Con Don and Traitor McConnell WANT the government to be shut down - the better to rob us blind and further destroy the underpinnings of OUR democracy.
They are setting us up, along with Putin, Netanyahu, Erdogan, Duerte, Kim, the new dictator in Brazil and all the other International Mafia supposed strong men, to start WW3.
I do not understand why they want to destroy civilization except that they are all demented with insatiable greed and are morally/ethically bankrupt and socially unconscious.
NOW is the time to stop them. NOW may be the only time for centuries.
29
@njglea The only way to make Trump history is to defeat him at the ballot box in 2020. I like the Constitution, and I'm pretty sure it would not condone a "citizen's arrest" of this nature. Our nation's leaders should speak out, but what you're suggesting is just as bad as something Trump would devise.
5
There is not time, pygmy scribe, and it doesn't matter what the Constitution says. Every American citizen has the right to arrest someone.
These are unprecedented times and they call for unprecedented action.
3