The conservatives, when they were in the majority, used to portray Nancy Pelosi as somebody seriously working above her pay grade. A happenstance leader who got to high rank in a minority party because nobody else especially wanted the job. A flake. When she became Speaker of the House in 2006, the conservatives were sure her implosion was imminent and that it would help bring them back to power. They were, instead, confounded by her success.
The implosion may just have been postponed. Dealing with weak minority Republicans turns out to be easier than dealing with powerful majority Democrats, all of whom are on a binge for more power.
One of the great power struggles of the post-conservative era has begun. In a suddenly open field, in which virtually all power is available to the Democrats, a vast realignment of standing and clout and gravitas and who needs who is taking place.
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Pelosi’s maneuver has been to be the president’s loyalist, or, as seems more and more accurate, his lap-dog. She’s the most goo-goo eyed Democrat in Washington, or at least playing that role. The Senate, and its leader Harry Reid, seem to be positioning themselves more critically, or churlishly. The Senate seems to be wanting the junior kid in the White House to come to them.
It’s all how you look at the short-term fate of the stimulus deal. The Pelosi position is that Obama is FDR and he is going to sweep to great popularity in his first 100 days. So why not ride his coattails? (The conservatives who, together with their other jabs, maintained that Pelosi never did a lick of work, would see her coattail approach as a lazy lady’s strategy.) Harry Reid, reasonably doubting the president’s chance for unequivocal success (and recognizing that Obama might actually fall on his face), is trying for independence.
This resulted, yesterday, in a Senate-House kerfuffle of no real consequence, save for each side trying to claim they had bested the other.
But the stakes are real. Not just the economic health and future of the nation, but the kind of support and loyalty that’s going to be available to the president (especially after the first 100 days), and, more importantly, the faces and voices of power in Washington. The Democrats have had hardly any voice and few memorable faces for a long time. Naturally, many of them are hungry now to be the Tom Delays and Newt Gingrichs and Bill Frists (forgetting that each of these careers ended in ignominy) of the Democratic Party and the new Democratic age. The free-for-all among Democrats in Congress is going to be almost as interesting as the struggles inside the White House.
This is, after all, what Democrats do—they maul each other. Saint Barack won’t likely change that.
More of Newser founder Michael Wolff's articles and commentary can be found at VanityFair.com, where he writes a regular column. He can be emailed at michael@newser.com
