quote:

---

Nancy Pelosi - "Damaged Goods"?

Before Nancy Pelosi was even inaugurated as Speaker, the super-smart Washington punditocracy had all but declared her an absurd failure -- a figure far too weak, vindictive and just generally ridiculous to be able to get anything done. After all, she backed Jack Murtha rather than Steney Hoyer for Majority Leader and decided she didn't want Jane Harman as Intelligence Committee Chair, so her whole Speakership had unraveled before it even began.

CNN's Wolf Blitzer spoke behind onscreen text that read: "Damaged Goods"? Blitzer inquired: "how badly is Nancy Pelosi damaged politically?" In U.S. News & World Report, Gloria Borger accused Pelosi of "demeaning" her "exalted position" and said she "look[s] like a girl eager to 'get back' at the guy she didn't like." MSNBC had a lengthy giggling session devoted to nothing but hilarious mockery over what a silly failure Pelosi was (as Digby, who watched that segment put it: they "have just spent half an hour discussing the fact that Nancy Pelosi ruined her own honeymoon and now it is really questionable whether she can lead").

Slate's Timothy Noah decreed: "Let Pelosi remain speaker for now. But let her know that, before the new Congress even begins, she has placed herself on probation." Noah warned her: "One more strike—even a minor misstep—and House Democrats will demonstrate that they, unlike Speaker-elect Pelosi and President Bush, know how to correct their mistakes." And the very-in-the-know New Republic commentators agreed heartily that Pelosi's first week had been a "real embarrassment" and a "disaster" and fretted in unison: "How can Pelosi recover?"

On and on that went for weeks -- the hapless Democrats burdened with this vindictive, bitter woman who had alienated everyone with her petty bickering to the point where her "ability to lead" was in question. And all of that wisdom solidified in mid-November, almost two full months before Pelosi was even Speaker.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by HalfMooner

It sure smells to me as though Pelosi was getting the full "talking points" Rove-style orchestrated attack, using the GOP's agents of influence in the press. That combined with people like Timothy Noah at Slate who seem to have pulled out every old misogynist stereotype they ever heard.

But I think it's just great that Pelosi has been steady through all this and didn't let it get her rattled. Contrary to the "weak and emotional" hype about her, she's proving herself a pretty good House leader, even under the full court press of a dirty Karl Rove type attack.

I'll have to look into "Mooning" the bastards. I gotta find just the right special, tricky approach, you know. Thanks for making me aware of this, anyhow. Oh, and there's never any problem of me sinking to the same level as the opponents I take one. After all, as a wannabe humorist, I have to put aside all semblance of personal decency and dignity as a matter of course. (Look what I did to Kil tonight, and I LIKE him.) I don't sink to their level, I dive deeper.

---