Pelosi ready for fresh start
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By The Associated Press | Thursday, November 09, 2006 |
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is set to become the first female speaker of the House when she takes office in January. Pelosi was caught off guard by an early-morning phone call Wednesday. She thought it might be her daughter calling with news of a new baby. Instead, it was President Bush calling to congratulate her on Tuesday’s win.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi — soon to be Madam Speaker — says she had something other than politics on her mind when her phone rang early Wednesday morning.
“I thought it might have been Alexandra calling with some news,” Pelosi said, talking about her daughter and the impending arrival of a sixth grandchild. “I picked up the phone and said, ‘Do we have a baby coming?’”
“Leader Pelosi?” the voice on the other end inquired.
It wasn’t her daughter with news of an overdue baby, but rather a White House staffer trying to connect her with President Bush. The president wanted to congratulate her after Democrats upended his party’s 12-year reign in the House and put her in charge next year as the first female speaker in the nation’s history.
“The call was so very, very early in the morning,” an ebullient Pelosi recalled, saying that Bush referred to her as “Madam speaker-elect, and I referred to him as president.”
Rep. George Miller, a California Democratic colleague, said Pelosi had been telling him for three weeks that “everything stops when the baby’s coming.”
Would a man in her position of power make the same choice? “The record’s probably not very good on that,” Miller quipped. Alas, the baby didn’t come Wednesday.
Such was Pelosi’s morning the day after voters gave Democrats at least a 25-seat majority in the House, and put her, a 10-term lawmaker, in the No. 2 spot in the line of succession to the presidency, behind only Vice President Dick Cheney.
She was greeted outside the Capitol by cameras and seventh-graders from Flushing, N.Y., who happened to be there for a tour and ended up getting a hands-on civics lesson from the California Democrat.
“On the day of Jan. 3rd, I’ll receive the gavel on behalf of all of the young people in America,” Pelosi told the kids. “We’re responsible to you.”
At more buttoned-down media events throughout the day, Pelosi made it a point to promise repeatedly to work with the Republicans who her party had just drummed.
“Democrats are ready to lead, prepared to govern, and looking forward to working in a bipartisan way with the Republicans in Congress and with the president of the United States,” Pelosi said. She planned to have lunch today at the White House with Bush.
Any effort to impeach the president “is off the table,” she assured the nation before TV cameras, but she also said American voters “spoke for change, and they spoke for a new direction for all Americans.”
In an appearance with Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, Pelosi welcomed Bush’s announcement he was replacing Donald H. Rumsfeld as secretary of Defense. “It will give a fresh start to finding a solution to Iraq, rather than staying the course,” she said.
She said Democrats would return to power without rancor, but with a forward-looking vision, outlining an agenda that includes enacting recommendations of a commission impaneled after the Sept. 11 attacks to look at terrorist threats, raising the minimum wage, reducing college costs, pushing for more stem-cell research and working for lower medicine prices.
Pelosi will be formally re-elected as her party’s leader, and its nominee to be speaker, when the Democratic caucus meets Nov. 16. The actual speaker’s election will occur in January.
While Pelosi is unopposed, other leadership posts are being hotly contested. Current minority whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland and leading Iraq war critic John Murtha of Pennsylvania are vying for the position of majority leader.
Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, a former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, is in line to become majority whip, but might be challenged by Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, who as party campaign committee chairman directed the Democrats’ successful election effort.
Pelosi, 66, made history four years ago when she became the first woman to lead a party caucus in either house of Congress.
Her next history-making move is a huge step for women in America, Miller said.
“I think it’s just an incredible role model. When I came to Congress (in 1974), there were very few women ... and now a woman is the speaker of the United States House of Representatives. It’s really quite something,” Miller said.
Pelosi is a liberal who represents one of the most left-leaning districts of San Francisco. Republicans had tried to use that against her. In races around the country, GOP partisans said the possibility of a “Speaker Pelosi” was reason enough to keep the House in Republican hands.
It’s not clear which Republican will serve as minority leader. House Speaker Dennis Hastert announced Wednesday he will not run for Republican leader when Democrats take control in January.
The daughter and sister of Baltimore mayors, Pelosi grew up immersed in politics and moved west in her 20s when her investment banker husband wanted to return to his roots. She managed to work herself into California’s Democratic political structure while raising five children who were born over six years.
She didn’t run for Congress until she was 46, when her youngest daughter reached high school.
Nancy Pelosi
Age: 66 (March 26, 1940)
Party: Democrat
Hometown: San Francisco
Education: Graduated from Trinity College in Washington, D.C., in 1962.
Political experience: Has served in House of Representatives since 1987. Elected House Democratic Leader in 2002.
Family: Husband, Paul; five children: Nancy Corinne, Christine, Jacqueline, Paul and Alexandra, and five grandchildren.
Source: www.house.gov/pelosi
Accomplishments: Helped establish a nationwide health tracking network to examine the links between environmental pollutants and chronic disease and created the Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS program. Responsible for the “Pelosi Amendment,” which requires the World Bank and all the regional multilateral development banks to review the potential environmental impacts of development projects.
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