https://www.npr.org/2022/11/17/1133397685/house-speaker-pelosi-step-down Full title of article: Nancy Pelosi Says She Will Step Down As Party Leader, After Two Decades At the Top <Snip> Her decision comes as no surprise on Capitol Hill, and is consistent with a promise she made four years ago to self term limit after Democrats won the majority in 2018 and she became the first speaker since the legendary Sam Rayburn to claim the speakership twice. There has been a quiet desire among rank and file Democrats to elect a younger slate of leaders to replace Pelosi, who is 82, and the two other top House Democratic leaders, Rep Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., who are also in their 80s. Following Pelosi's announcement, Hoyer, who is currently the House Majority Leader, said he will not run for a leadership position in the next Congress. "Now is the time for a new generation of leaders," Hoyer said in a statement, adding that he would support Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jefferies. House Democrats will hold leadership elections at the end of the month, and Pelosi's announcement is likely to set off a flurry of leadership bid announcements. At the top of the list is Jeffries of New York, Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Pete Aguilar of California. All three serve in lower-tier leadership roles now and are interested in moving up the ladder. Jeffries, who is 52, Clark, who is 59, and Aguilar, who is 43, would make an African American, a white woman and a Hispanic the new faces of the party. Reps. Ami Bera and Tony Cárdenas, both of California, have already announced campaigns to run the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democrats' campaign arm, for the 2024 election. <End> First of all, hats off to Pelosi, for her masterful leadership of the Democratic caucus, through turbulent times, even with divisions among Democratic perspectives, to not just hold her caucus together, to effectively legislate for we constituents; and be able to hand over only the slimmest of minority statuses, after a midterm election, slated to go against the empowered Democratic Party, to her successor; but to have also been instrumental in pushing through historic & crucially important legislation, such as insuring healthcare, and economic security, for millions, with the Affordable Care Act, clean energy reform, under President George Bush, and a rebuilding of American infrastructure, and a national addressing of Climate Change, under President Biden. She had also been the key, when Dems were on the minority, to blocking the Bush Administration, in 2005, in its intention to privatize Social Security, which has recently resurfaced among some Republican Senators, such as Ron Johnson (WI) and Rick Scott (FL), who may actually challenge Mitch McConnell, for Senate Republican leadership. In 2008-- though I am critical of our Justice Department, not holding Financial company executives accountable-- Pelosi was instrumental in passing legislation to steady our Banking Industry, in that Financial Crisis, which led to the Great Recession. And not only has she been the one to get passed Biden's Pandemic Recovery plans, but she had fully supported Covid relief checks, sent to voters, in 2020, with Trump's signature on them, in an election year, knowing that this could only help Trump. Yet, Pelosi has consistently put the needs of the American people, and the responsibilities of her high office, ahead of all other considerations. The contrast should be stark, when the Republicans take control, in January. While I'm sure that there will be many on the Right, who will want to paint a very different legacy for Ms. Pelosi, that is secondary to what this thread intends to offer: a real debate, of a real issue, that will very soon come to pass. Namely, who will take over leadership, of the House Democratic caucus? It is not as if, with all the craziness that some Republicans like MTG are promising, there will not be a need for strong Democratic opposition, especially with the wafer thin majority, the GOP will hold. Yet, as this is something that will not be decided until a caucus vote, a couple of weeks away, there is also room here, for interesting speculation. Source #2: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/nan...troversies-house-leadership/story?id=93502266 <Snip> Pelosi and other Democrats, including Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, have been touting how she helped muscle the sweeping Affordable Care Act (ACA) through an uncertain, sometimes fractious caucus and against steep odds in 2010, during President Barack Obama's first term. Appearing recently on ABC's "This Week," Pelosi told anchor George Stephanopoulos that the ACA was her "major accomplishment. I take great pride in that." The Human Rights Campaign released a statement upon Pelosi's announcement. They noted her role in passing the ACA, also known as Obamacare, and called her "the definition of an ally." A release from the organization credited her for work to repeal "don't ask, don't tell," the policy which barred openly LGBTQ service members in the military, and her support for same-sex marriage. Pelosi has a history of making strong statements on foreign policy. She whipped much of her party against an Iraq War resolution worked on by the administration of President George W. Bush -- even though her mentor, then-Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, helped craft it. Pelosi would later call Bush's policy in the region a failure and the war itself "a grotesque mistake." This year, she made headlines for visiting Taiwan despite warnings from the Chinese government, but Pelosi's public tensions with China date as far back as 1991. While visiting mainland China that year, she and two colleagues held a banner honoring victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. They were soon chased from the spot. <End> Very interestingly, the above article cited Pelosi's biographer as a source of something I did not know: that Pelosi had considered retiring from Congress, in 2016, until Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton. Source #3: https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/...shments-and-the-house-gop-agenda-154133061977
Really? No one on the Right, wants to offer an opinion as to the "new direction" of House Democrats? No speculations, as to whether Dems will choose a black man, an Hispanic man, another woman, or someone else, to lead them? And no one, on the Left, cares hazard a guess as what the Republicans will do, after losing their biggest Democratic Bogeywoman? Are they just going to manufacture the same, specious mythology, about whoever the Dems elect? And/or, will they only say that Pelosi remains the person, pulling all the strings?
There's no need to speculate. Democrats will go for the most woke minority they can find. That is the democratic party.
So the changing of the Democratic guard, is not meaningful enough to warrant Republican notice, in your opinion? Let's hope that elected Republicans, show a better awareness of, and ability to evaluate, the significance of world events. But your reply, is at least a start, for this thread. EDIT: At the very least, whoever takes the reigns, will not have the exact same perspective as Pelosi. Therefore, how the new leader balances the concerns of the various groups, within the caucus, will not identically mirror the Pelosi model.
Of course she'll step down, her party was voted out of power in the House. This is not news it's common sense.
