Ambassador Pelosi?

When Speakers retire — and this is pure speculation, Nate Silver this morning still gave Dems a 20% chance of keeping the House — but, historically speaking, when speakers retire they tend to drop off the map (Denny Hastert, Jim Wright), hover in political circles (Newt Gingrich), write a book (Tip O’Neill), or lark off an am ambassadorial adventure (Tom Foley). No way Nancy Pelosi becomes a lobbyist. I also don’t see her sticking around the Beltway (why would you when you have a fabulous Napa Valley home you hardly get to enjoy?). She’s already written a book. And while she certainly has always said she’d like to spend more time with the grandkids, it’s hard to imagine her disappearing completely from public life. At 70 she’s still full of energy and smarts. Personally, I think she’d make a fabulous ambassador to Italy. Or her old friend Jerry Brown, if he wins back the governor’s mansion, might co-opt her for a California project. Whether she stays on as Speaker or retires, I don’t think this is the last we’ve heard of Pelosi.

My story from this week’s dead tree edition about why, if Pelosi goes, a whole generation of Dems could follow.

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Related Topics: retirements, speaker, 2012 Election, Congress, Democratic Party, Nancy Pelosi
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  • Paul-no not that one

    Heath Shuler took a few many blows to the head if he thinks he’s going to be elected leader.
    .
    I doubt he makes it through next Tuesday.

  • Paul-no not that one

    few TOO many.
    .
    Maybe I did too.

  • kbanginmotown

    You accidentally your comment.

  • http://gum0nshoe.wordpress.com gumOnShoe

    @1.2 (ugh 4chan, its come this far, has it?)

  • liberalmeltdown

    Good Lord, Nancy Pelosi has smarts? Where is the evidence of that?
    .
    She should form her own recording studio, recruiting all those garage bands (by the unemployed) that have formed due to the passage of her unpopular health care bill. Remember, she considers it a stimulus for all those “artists.”
    .
    The Nancy Pelosi reality show: “America has Food Stamps.”

  • acameronw

    Mark my words, the day is going to come when a Tea Partier is going to avoid bankruptcy (or worse) because the Affordable Healthcare Act prevented his insurance company from setting a cap on the dollar amount of his coverage. Or when one of his children or grandchildren born with the a pre-existing condition is able to get coverage that would previously have been denied them. Perhaps then the might feel a twinge of remorse for the way they demonized Nancy Pelosi, who paid a critical role in providing those those benefits.

    But probably not.

  • http://forgottenlord.livejournal.com forgottenlord

    Oh, you just know he’ll actually say “now this is why America is great and doesn’t need Pelosi’s socialized medicine”

  • kevin

    Good Lord, Nancy Pelosi has smarts? Where is the evidence of that?
    .
    How about in her record as Speaker — she got more major legislation through the House and signed into law than any speaker, of either party, in the last 50 years. You’d have to go back to McCormack to find someone who did more, and he had a much bigger majority.
    .
    Go ahead, compare her record of achievement with Newt Gingrich or Tom DeLay.

  • kevin

    They’ll take the benefits, but never acknowledge where they came from. These are the same people who were riding Medicare-funded scooters to “keep your gubmint outta my healthcare” rallies all summer. You know, morons.

  • Paul-no not that one

    To be fair DeLay wasn’t Speaker. At least not officially.

  • http://elvisberg.wordpress.com Elvis Elvisberg

    Respectfully, Jay, I’d submit that speculation, when imperfectly grounded in evidence, doesn’t really add much to our understanding of what’s going on in the world around us.

  • earljr1

    If you can afford the premiums, acamernow. Sticker price on insuring those with pre-existing conditions will shock and awe you. Insurance companies still have the upper hand here and most people will end up with “junk” policies with EXTREMELY high deductibles and limited coverage. You might also note the AMA is now warning that as many as 60% of doctors could stop seeing new Medicare patients, so for our seniors, good luck on finding a doctor to treat you.

  • kevin

    Jeez, of course. Sub in Denny Hastert.

  • fhmadvocat

    Hey earl,

    In case you didn’t know, Medicare is funded with your and my tax money and is one of the fastest growing liabilities of the federal government. If a senior has been smart through the years, he or she will have supplemental insurance to cover what Medicare can’t. If he or she does not, all the more reason to have a single payer system.

    It is funny, Republicans are campaigning about reigning in spending, and they have the nerve to criticize Obama’s proposal cuts to Medicare spending. Now that is a lot to lampoon about Obamacare, but the “death panel” critique is just rich. It shows the Republicans are not serious about attacking government spending and would go back to their free spending ways if they took over Congress. The only thing that would save us from that tragedy would be our “Socialist”, “Marxist” President.

  • liberalmeltdown

    Yes, we should bow down to Queen Nancy our savior.

  • earljr1

    Yes, indeed, fhmadvocat, as liberalmeltdow points out, Pelosi and the democrats have really put the screws to our seniors. Fat cat politicians can well afford that supplemental insurance you tout, but it is well known the majority of seniors have ONLY their SS to fall back on. For the second year, they received no cost of living increase, but like everyone else, are paying more for Rx drugs and insurance premiums. Cutting 500 billion from Medicare was reckless and potentially destructive to the entire infrastructure of our health delivery system. Why do you think democrats RAN from Obamacare during this election? They are fully cognizant of the dire mess they created.

  • Exiled_At_Home (formerly Neo)

    Personally, I think she’d make a fabulous ambassador to Italy.
    .
    Eh?

  • liberalmeltdown

    earl, I guess I am going to have to shorten my user name. It’s liberalmeltdown; one too many consonants for Time. Pelosi’s legacy will be that her leadership and partisanship has engineered one of the biggest changes in power since the 1930s.
    .
    The fact that Obama goes on Stewart’s show and says, “We have done things that some folks don’t even know about,” is a testimony to the tangled web of lies and deceit that constitutes Obamacare. Obama himself spent months and months selling and explaining the bill, yet there are things in there we don’t know about.

  • earljr1

    You are 100% correct, liberalmeltdown. As we peel back the layers of this onion, it is absolutely smelling to high heaven. The lawyers for our hospital have been trying to dissect this monstrosity and tell us it is the most convoluted, poorly constructed legislation they have ever seen, bar none. They feel, as written, it will be virtually unmanageable. The clowns who put this together, should face prosecution for committing fraud and deception. Our senior citizens, in particular, have been shafted, big time!

  • liberalmeltdown

    By the way, to the genius that runs this blog: why can you not publish one more consonant in a user name, but you have room for the three characters of …? Perhaps you might inform users to limit there username to 13 characters or less. Or 13 characters and …

  • Paul-no not that one

    Her name ends with an “i”.

  • formerlyjames

    Ambassador Pelosi sounds good to me.

  • spob
  • http://2thirdsrocks.wordpress.com 2thirdsrocks

    whistling theme to Jeopardy…

  • tanboontee

    Does it really matter which party controls the congress or senate after the mid-term elections?

    If politicians pledge one thing in the campaign and do another when elected, what purpose does it serve?

    American economy is in havoc. What we need immediately are leaders who can diligently and conscientiously tackle the problem and bring back some sanity to the once great nation. Instead all one has are the wild accusations and petty squabbles among the politicians for personal vested interests and gain.

    Many voters are fed up, while many others have given up. Is that the kind of democracy the US wants to sell to the world? Utterly ludicrous. (btt1943)

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