The Midmorning Refill: Politico's requiem for Nancy Pelosi paints her as defiant till the end
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If you read one thing today . . .
Among the numerous post-election post mortems comes John Bresnahan’s opus in Politico on “The rise and fall of Nancy Pelosi.” Is it possible that, as Bresnahan asserts, that Pelosi’s unyielding idealism did her and her party in?
Pelosi gambled the House on a hard-core liberal legislative program, betting that the American people would reward Democrats – and President Barack Obama — for enacting sweeping proposals on health care, climate change and Wall Street reform. Even when the tea party movement began to sweep across the nation in August 2009, Pelosi refused to back down, arguing that it was better for Democrats to go down fighting rather than to suffer defeat for failing to act.
But with unemployment still stubbornly high, the economy continuing to sputter along, and the federal government racking up $1 trillion-plus deficits, Pelosi became the personification for many of everything wrong with the Democratic Party.
Overheard:
Former President George W. Bush is hawking his new book, Decision Points, and wants to make it clear that when it came to going to war against Iraq, he was overruled. Huh? From Talking Points Memo:
“I was a dissenting voice. I didn’t want to use force,” Bush said. “I mean force is the last option for a President. And I think it’s clear in the book that I gave diplomacy every chance to work. And I will also tell you the world’s better off without Saddam in power. And so are 25 million Iraqis.”