Page 38 - Time Magazine, Sep. 17, 2018

Politics

death of Ted Kennedy, depriving them leadership. She’s been there a long time.” is a theme that works anywhere in the
of their crucial 60th vote to surmount a Democrats, he says, need leaders who country. It’s very motivating,” says Corry
filibuster.Sensingthat the party was losing can galvanize and rally the base. “Noth- Bliss, who is in charge of the House
the politics of the health care debate, ing against her,” he says, “but I think her Republicans’ super PAC, speaking as if
White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel best years are behind her.” Pelosi were a policy proposal. People have
circulated a plan to pull back, passing It is the Harris County Democratic a “visceral” reaction to her, he tells me.
only a children’s health care measure and Party’s largest annual dinner in history, “We will spend tens of millions of dollars
moving on from the issue. At a meeting in a testament to the energy on the left this reminding people across the country of
the Oval Office, Pelosi confronted Obama. year. Pelosi sits at a table with her longtime what she would do as Speaker.”
“Mr. President, I know there are some on friend, the Democratic megadonor Amber A Pennsylvania House special election
your staff who want to take the namby- Mostyn, under a giant chandelier. Onstage in March foreshadowed this approach.
pamby approach,” she said, according to is Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Nearly 60% of the GOP’s ads consisted
two people who were in the room. “That’s Lee, a notorious stage hog who once of attacks on Pelosi, while 7% of the Dem-
unacceptable.” Obama took Pelosi’s side, complained that hurricane names are ocrat’s ads featured the candidate assur-
and Emanuel’s plan died. racist. To Pelosi’s surprise—she hates ing voters he didn’t support her, accord-
Obama’s relationship with Pelosi was being surprised—Jackson Lee has Hillary ing to the Wesleyan Media Project. The
his closest one on Capitol Hill, a former Clinton on her phone, which she holds Democrat, Conor Lamb, won anyway. “If
Obama aide tells me. “More than any- up to the mic, causing booming echoes. all we’ve got is Nancy Pelosi,” a Republi-
one else in the United States Congress, Clinton, reading woodenly, acknowledges can strategist told me, “we’re pretty des-
House or Senate, Democrat or Republi- “the presence of our great Democratic perate. It’s not going to be enough.”
can,” says the Obama aide, “she always leader, Nancy Pelosi,” then reads a What Pelosi would like the election to
kept her word to him, and she always confusing tribute to a dead woman who be about is neither her nor Trump but the
delivered.” (The favor wasn’t necessar- has not been honored on the program. tax legislation that the Republican Con-
ily repaid: Obama refused to appear at a (Pelosi’s relationship with Clinton is gress passed in December, which she has
Pelosi campaign event during his 2012 re- cordial but distant, aides to both say.) dubbed the “GOP tax scam.” Calling it a
election campaign, according to a source Finally, nearly three hours in, Pelosi handout for the wealthy, she has derided
familiar with the episode.) takes the stage. Friends say she has its benefits to the middle class as mere
The halcyon days of liberal legislating improved as a public speaker, but she’s “crumbs,” a comment for which Repub-
were short. In 2010, Republicans took still uninspiring, reading laundry lists of licans pilloried her. But Pelosi thinks she’s
back the House, riding a wave of voter policies, reciting shopworn slogans and winning the argument. In their midterm
anger at Obama, the Wall Street bailouts trotting out the same quotations over and campaigns, Republicans have largely
and health care reform. Pelosi was ex- over. “Some people have an unlimited stopped touting the tax bill, as the mes-
pected to resign in defeat, but she refused. tolerance for the suffering of others,” she sage didn’t seem to be resonating.
There was only one way she would be vin- says at one point. “And we’re like, ‘What? Pelosi may have a rare talent for legis-
dicated: winning the majority again. And That’s not the way it’s supposed to be.’” lating, but her campaign skills are ques-
she was willing to wait. Republicans would like the 2018 elec- tionable. As proof of her acumen, she’s
tion to be about Pelosi. “Nancy Pelosi still telling the story of the 2000 elec-
IF IT’S FRIDAY, this must be Houston. tions, when she helped her party pick
Pelosi has raised $680 million for her up five House seats in California even as
party since 2002, and on this February Democrats lost races across the country.
evening she is clicking her way across the ‘I JUST She takes credit when her party wins, but
basement floor of the convention-center blames others when Democrats lose. Her
hotel where the local Democratic Party is CA N ’ T G E T message this year, that Republicans are for
holding a fundraising dinner. It’s one of 71 the rich, is essentially the same one Dem-
events she’ll attend in a three-month span. OVER THIS ocrats have used in every recent election,
In public, she tries to mention Trump as with a couple of new slogans attached—
little as possible, but as she speed-walks PRESIDENT. even thought the President is far from
through the hotel she can’t help herself. a normal Republican. “The leadership
“I just can’t get over this President,” she HE IS SO is still in this 1990s mind-set,” a former
says. “He is so beneath the dignity of the member tells me.
office, with everything that he says. It’s BENEAT H THE The morning after the dinner in
just amazing to me!” Houston, Pelosi travels to a teachers’-
The people at the exclusive predinner DIGNITY OF union hall for a discussion on the tax
reception have all paid to meet Pelosi, law. She sits in a folding chair at the
but that doesn’t mean they all adore her. THE OFFICE.’ front of the room, enduring another
“She is a strong leader,” says Sergio Lira, a endless preaching-to-the-choir event.
local school-board official. “But honestly, NANCY PELOSI, One person asks her what Democrats can
I think maybe it’s time for a change in on President Trump do about people “voting against their best
30 TIME September 17, 2018