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Inside Nancy Pelosi's War With AOC and the Squad
PoliticoAdapted from Madam Speaker: Nancy Pelosi and the Lessons of Power, to be published by Twelve Books on April 20.
“Nancy doesn’t have much patience for people who don’t know what they don’t know.”
That was what a senior congressional Democrat close to the speaker of the House told me when I asked what Nancy Pelosi really thought of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Pelosi was famous for having what POLITICO once described as “an iron fist in a Gucci glove.” There was no better example of that than her dealings with the Squad, the quartet of progressive women elected in 2018. She hadn’t survived as the top Democrat in the House for nearly two decades by ignoring challenges or challengers. Instead, she applied the lessons she had learned to win them over, or at least keep them at bay.
The relationship between the speaker and AOC, her party’s most charismatic newcomer, is complicated. Colleagues and congressional aides said Pelosi saw the New York congresswoman as a talented person but one who was often naïve about how the institution worked and unrealistic about what could be achieved, and how. She feared the Squad’s demands would imperil hard-won Democratic control — the slim majority that had put Democrats in a position to change the country’s course, but not to win every battle.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/04/15/nancy-pelosi-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-481704
That was what a senior congressional Democrat close to the speaker of the House told me when I asked what Nancy Pelosi really thought of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Pelosi was famous for having what POLITICO once described as “an iron fist in a Gucci glove.” There was no better example of that than her dealings with the Squad, the quartet of progressive women elected in 2018. She hadn’t survived as the top Democrat in the House for nearly two decades by ignoring challenges or challengers. Instead, she applied the lessons she had learned to win them over, or at least keep them at bay.
The relationship between the speaker and AOC, her party’s most charismatic newcomer, is complicated. Colleagues and congressional aides said Pelosi saw the New York congresswoman as a talented person but one who was often naïve about how the institution worked and unrealistic about what could be achieved, and how. She feared the Squad’s demands would imperil hard-won Democratic control — the slim majority that had put Democrats in a position to change the country’s course, but not to win every battle.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/04/15/nancy-pelosi-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-481704
33 replies
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when they attempt to play 'let's you and them fight' games between the further left of the caucus and the leadership.
These postings like this (such as that OP you posted of a RW, disingenuous hit piece from the long-odious, and now clearly RW Newsweek attempting the same thing as this OP) only serve to engender divisiveness, garner clicks, and to fire up the old outrage Wurlitzer (borrowed that phrase from an old post by another DU'er).
This article is mostly rehashing events from 2018 and 2019, which were dealt with and moved on from.
I shall post the end of it (this Politico piece), which serves to somewhat counter the negative framing attempt:
Pelosi was leading a congressional delegation to mark the four hundredth anniversary of the opening of the slave trade to America. There was one seat in the delegation for a freshman member. Nine freshmen were members of the Congressional Black Caucus, and all of them presumably would have been eager to go. “I was like, ‘I’d be honored to go to Ghana.’”
Omar tweeted photos from the trip. One of them showed Omar and Pelosi standing at the Door of No Return on Goree Island, holding hands and smiling.
By the end of the year, Pelosi had set a record for keeping her caucus together, despite its ideological differences. The iron fist in the Gucci glove had managed to hold together a diverse group of politicians who ranged from the 31 members representing districts won by Trump to the four progressives in the Squad who weren’t afraid to be called Democratic socialists.
Democrats recorded the highest level of party unity since CQ Roll Call began tracking the measure in 1956. Pelosi was winning the battle to control the progressives and keep the party together. But she also knew the war was being waged anew every day, with more fights soon to follow.
Omar tweeted photos from the trip. One of them showed Omar and Pelosi standing at the Door of No Return on Goree Island, holding hands and smiling.
By the end of the year, Pelosi had set a record for keeping her caucus together, despite its ideological differences. The iron fist in the Gucci glove had managed to hold together a diverse group of politicians who ranged from the 31 members representing districts won by Trump to the four progressives in the Squad who weren’t afraid to be called Democratic socialists.
Democrats recorded the highest level of party unity since CQ Roll Call began tracking the measure in 1956. Pelosi was winning the battle to control the progressives and keep the party together. But she also knew the war was being waged anew every day, with more fights soon to follow.
on a side note....
You had the stones yesterday to imply I was veering into Trumpian territory for simply referring to Afghanistan as a 'forever war'.
Will you say the same thing about President Biden?
Biden: It's time to end the forever war
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2021/04/14/joe-biden-beau-biden-its-time-to-end-this-forever-war-sot-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/
