I see that Nancy Pelosi has decided to step down from Democratic leadership in the House. Good. I have nothing but immense respect for Pelosi, one of the most effective speakers in history. But it's time for younger leadership. Steny Hoyer is also stepping down, and I hope Jim Clyburn does the same (or stays on as whip).
We don't need a set of "Young Guns," as the Republicans had a decade ago. Just a few responsible and experienced folks from an earlier generation.
In the meantime, best wishes to Pelosi. She has been a magnificent force for good, and we can only hope we see her likes again.
"Just a few responsible and experienced folks from an earlier generation."
Most of the generation earlier than Pelosi and Hoyer are dead.
On the other hand, there are still quite a few responsible and experienced folks from a generation earlier than the "young guns."
Unfortunately, it might be difficult to find some who are as dedicated, determined, and disciplined as Hoyer, and there are likely none who are as badass as Pelosi.
Looks like Brooklyn, New York will rule the upcoming Democratic Congress. Seems myopic on that count alone to elevate Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer's neighbor there. His ties to Andrew Cuomo and New York's massive fuckups in redistricting make him even less attractive as Pelosi's replacement. New York alone pretty much lost the House this election. Why should a rep from that state become Speaker? (Wonder what kingmaker Jim Clybourn will decide to do here.)
None of that has any impact on his ability to count votes, keep people on message, and kick McCarthy's ass every day in front of reporters. He's pretty good at that last thing.
Right. Rep. Jeffries was an Impeachment Manager in one those from the recent unpleasantness, before Joe Biden came in. I was impressed by him.
That said, I know very little about who the strong and influential Democratic members of the House are, currently. The New Mexico delegation are either freshmen or second-termers. Rep. Jeffries might make the Qpublicans froth at the mouth and get crazier, which would make them look worse to all sane Americans, but as Adlai Stevenson said on his third run for the Presidency, "That's not enough! We need a majority!"
What does the Congressional delegation have to do with the NYS assembly and NYS Senate? Those are the idiots. We can also thank the dope “do gooders” for passing the idiotic law that did real bad. That being said really no one to blame but the moron scared suburban fools. Also, the idiots who passed bail “reform” and while I am at the idiot Manhattan DA who seems to let everyone go free. Rant over with.
Nancy Pelosi is the GOAT
Let's see how well the Republicans do with a slightly larger majority.
Kevin McCarthy is going to be in a world of shit for the next two years. The House is going to be a dumpster fire stuffed into a clowncar and wrapped in a clusterfuck.
They've already announced that their first order of business is going to be to hold interminable hearings into how Hunter Biden is sex-trafficking Chinese secret agent or something.
That sure looks like the script for this incoming HR. The only rational hope for better seems to be that McCarthy will prove to be so weak and/or distracted that a working majority can run the place with discharge petitions. But talk about betting on a long shot while leaning on a weak reed . . .
Having them running in circles to please the nutter wing of the party is better than formulating and executing on actual policy. Without petty scandals to distract them, they might actually attempt coming up with a platform and governing.
Can someone tech savvy create another laptop that looks like it belongs to Hunter Biden? That could keep them busy for the next two years....
Great idea! Three of them at repair shops or bus stops or pawn shops in places he's known to have been. With ginned-up emails between him and Bannon, say. Bring on the red herrings, they won't be able to stop themselves.
There's a grocery store gossip rag in the position to make a lot of money with a series of fabricated Hunter Biden scandals. They'd eat that stuff up.
Bat Boy forever.
+1!
What do you mean slightly larger? The GOP may end up with as few as 218 or 219 seats.
Please, let it be so.
As long as the new leasership prizes merit over seniority fine.
A big shout-out and thank you to Nancy Pelosi, who has been absolutely fearless and disciplined in leading the Democratic Caucus and the House.
Does "effective" count?
The Speakership job is like herding cats while being pecked to death by ducks.
I want whoever Nancy was secretly grooming to be her successor. I don't care their gender, district, age (within reason). The only criteria is that they are the one Nancy picked. No one else.
Michelle Cottle has a good column about Nancy Pelosi in the Times today. The title is "Nancy Pelosi, Badass"
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/17/opinion/pelosi-speaker.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=Guest%20Essays
Agree 100%. She was incredibly effective.
Excuse me while I puke at the "time for younger leadership" garbage. I have never seen younger leaders actually outperform older ones. It's an ageist canard. Nancy Pelosi was an incredibly effective caucus leader and the odds she'll be replaced with someone better are essentially zero. Youth only makes people pretty, it doesn't make them competent.
The establishment is established for a reason. Washington is dominated by its elders for a reason. EXPERIENCE PRODUCES COMPETENCE. Never, ever listen to power-hungry whippersnappers touting ageist BS to try and get power that they do not deserve! Nobody has a right to replace anyone if they cannot show that they are actually better.
And I say this, by the way, as someone who is 36. Yet even I have been around long enough to know that when older leaders are replaced with younger, the new leaders usually do worse than their predecessors.
I'll also add that Jim Clyburn stepping down is the LAST thing we need. Keeping at least one experienced hand in the leadership will be essential to avoiding unnecessary mistakes. The new leaders will need him. The caucus will need him. STAY, Jim, STAY!
I'm very sad to see her go, too, but there is something to be said for the optics of younger leadership. No, optics aren't everything, but they're not nothing, either.
Normally I would agree. But Pelosi is 82; there's no knowing how many more years she has. This transition had to happen in the next few years anyway. Better she should step down while there's still time for her to mentor and advise her replacement.
Now is a particularly good time because the Democrats will be in the minority for at least the next two years, so the new minority leader will have time to learn the ropes before taking on the Speakership.
No one is suggesting replacing Nancy with a Gen Z freshman. Someone in their 40s (Obama was in his 40s) or 50s can be quite accomplished and competent. And young enough to satisfy Jaspers optics.
The must-have criteria for Pelosi's replacement is that they understand, as she does, that the difference between respect and weakness is the same as difference between up and down, which is because "becoming mature enough" is not something anyone should be doing in that job. Competence is a nice-to-have criteria. The technical details will come quickly enough to any contender and meets the #1 criteria.
I've always believed Pelosi should have taken responsibility for the 2010 debacle, stepped aside, and encouraged a few other long-serving members to do the same thing. The cohort of septuagenarians leading the party gradually becoming octagenarians over the subsequent years has not been in the interests of good government.
She made some serious errors over the last two years. I think the achievements she is being praised for are more to the credit of the House progressives, who demonstrated praiseworthy maturity and responsibility in shutting up after they were lied to and double-crossed by party leaders.
Twitter is going downhill fast.
Between the day Musk took over at Twitter and today's passing of Musk's deadline to join his "Twitter 2.0", reportedly less than 15% of the staff remains. Entire critical engineering teams have quit according to insiders. He locked physical access until next week, out of fear that people would sabotage company.
Not much time left to migrate over to Mastodon, unless your plan is to go down with the Titanic.
If someone told me, just a few weeks ago, that Trump’s Truth Social would outlive Twitter I would have laughed in their face. It doesn’t seem far fetched at all now.
What's funny is that both TruthSocial and Gab are forks of Mastodon's open source software.
Two words: tax writeoff.
That may have been the best Elmo could look for after he was forced to go through with buying it, and 44 bills of relief might seem pretty good from some angles, no?
Pelosi will go down as one of the best Speakers and party leaders of all time judged on her effectiveness regardless of her political views.
While losing control of the House is obviously not fun it does have the effect of beginning the transition to younger leaders. This wouldn't have happened if the Dems had eked out a small majority.
So nice to see this tribute.
I remember when so many newly-elected representatives had run on a promise to ditch Nancy Pelosi. Given how few of them could have managed to hold things together as well as she did during the trump years, I only hope that they at least recognize to themselves how much she was still needed.
Can only wonder what she could have accomplished as president, but that's wishing that the detractors in both parties had never succeeded in demonizing her. I don't forgive them, but she is the better person who can and will.
Hardly anyone ever makes the leap from House Speaker or Senate Majority Leader to President. Achieving caucus leadership requires seniority, patience, and skill in insider politics; getting elected president is a feat best attempted as soon as you've become a national household name, when you are familiar enough for people to feel comfortable with you but still have enough blank spaces in your public persona that people can assume you agree with them more than you actually do. I think LBJ was the only one to make the leap, and he did it via the Vice Presidency and his predecessor getting assassinated rather than winning a competitive primary.
Even without all the demonization, I doubt Nancy could have become president unless she'd made some very different choices earlier in her career. It occurs to me that Hillary Clinton should have stayed in the Senate instead of leaving to run for president; if she had, she might well be Senate Majority Leader now. She definitely had the right qualities for it, and might well have been better at it than Chucky.
Have we forgotten that her husband was almost killed because of the sewer in which she has to work? Hasn't her family suffered enough? Step back and take it a little easier, Speaker Pelosi, with our thanks.