The debate over current Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s future in House leadership has turned acrimonious and, given the nature of the argument, personal. But if you step back a bit from the infighting, it’s easy to see that Pelosi and her critics are making fundamentally compatible points.
On one side, Democratic Party loyalists and the bulk of the House caucus feel that Pelosi’s earned the job — she’s good at it. She holds the caucus together. She raises astounding sums. She’s arguably better at the job than any other modern speaker. Pointing to her competency, Pelosi and many of her allies accuse her critics of sexism and ageism.
Pelosi critics, meanwhile, don’t generally dispute that she delivers in the House. Their objection boils down to the fact that they do not think Pelosi is a strong communicator who should serve as the face of the party, especially as the newly elected Democratic majority in the House becomes the major locus of resistance to President Donald Trump.
It seems pretty clear at this point that Pelosi is going to triumph and retake the gavel. And as an effective leader, she ought to move to address her real weakness; she should make sure that someone else is in place to serve as the unofficial national party spokesperson — someone who goes on television to argue with Trump and the Republicans. (our emphasis)Pelosi has recently described herself as a "transitional" future Speaker, willing to step down at the end of the upcoming Congress. That she sees herself as a transitional figure indicates she views one of her key roles to be cultivating a new generation of leaders in the House, grooming new legislative leaders to take over when she relinquishes her gavel. With the blue wave election, she has more talent than ever to work with (though we would disagree with some of the prospective candidates for spokesperson Yglesias comes up with).
(We should point out the obvious -- that, no matter who the Democrats make Speaker of the House, the Republican bullshit machine will do its very best to demonize that person. However, their efforts in the recent mid- terms to scare their mouth- breathing base with the prospect of a Pelosi speakership didn't seem to turn out to be the winner they thought it might be.)
Having a "Speaker For The House" who would be a good communicator in the media- obsessed environment we live in, while a Speaker Pelosi manages the business of the House in her incomparable way is an intriguing idea. It may not be exactly what Democrats in the House end up doing, but some variation might be the solution to the infighting we're seeing, which distracts from the real struggle -- containing the menace in the White (Supremacist) House.
