Two days after her beloved Democratic Party showed it still has plenty of fight left by battering Donald Trump’s Republicans at the polls all over the country, Nancy Pelosi, 85, announced her retirement from Congress Thursday.
There ought to be monuments erected in Washington D.C., to honor this great woman. You can wipe the damn smirk off your face.
I’m dead serious about this.
After raising her five children to adulthood, because the children — ALL children — always came first with Pelosi, she served in Congress for 38 years where she would become the first woman ever to ascend to Speaker of the House.
She was without a doubt the most powerful person to ever hold this lofty position, and if you don’t believe me, let former Republican Speaker John Boehner tell it:
“Nancy Pelosi had a killer instinct and may be the most powerful Speaker ever. She understands power, knows how to use it, and rarely leaves fingerprints.”
Can somebody point to one person like Pelosi in our nation’s history who has book-ended and deftly turned the pages on two ugly chapters of Republican filth, incompetence and destruction?
Can somebody point to just one person who hung in for America’s sake and led the charge to help rescue her not once, not twice, but three times from the abyss?
In 2006, George Bush, the Far, Far Stupider One, was in the middle of his patented, daily drooling while hundreds and thousands of our nation’s finest were being killed and wounded every month in Iraq thanks to a war predicated by his singular ability to lie through his crooked teeth.
As caskets draped in flags were brought back to our country and hidden from plain sight by the Cheneys, Roves and Rumsfelds, we were quietly steaming toward what would be the most horrific financial crisis since the Great Depression. Making matters potentially worse, just moments away from hundreds of thousands losing their homes and jobs, Bush was snorting and cackling about Social Security reform, because, well, shouldn’t everybody have the ability to invest in the stock market? Yes, had that ghastly GOP reform gone through, the Great Recession could have actually been far, far worse.
Imagine that.
Well, not a moment too soon, the 2006 Midterms happened and the Democrats seized control of the House and Senate and set about restoring order to Bush’s odious, corrupt Republican animal House.
And, say, is this ringing any bells …?
Anyway, in the Democrats’ wisdom back in ’07 they nominated Pelosi, the firebrand from San Francisco, to become the face of the party and the first woman ever to grab the Speaker’s gavel.
And an aside: I still get chills down my spine and a lump in my throat typing about this. I was not prepared for that moment. To see a woman finally rise to these new heights in American politics meant my daughters and other daughters could do it, too. In short, I became a blubbering fool and my love and respect for Nancy Pelosi started.
Because I am telling you again: Nobody has ever done her job better.
From 2007 to 2011, Pelosi ran the House with style, integrity and a champion arm-wrestler’s strength. She was key in helping elect the first Black man to the U.S. presidency. And when you think about it, have we ever been better off than with Barack Obama and Pelosi at the helm of our government?
Sigh …
Pelosi’s 111th Congress was one of the most productive ever. Some say it was the most productive. Who am I to quibble? She tirelessly rammed through life-changing and -saving legislation. She didn’t suffer fools lightly, but really she was just smarter and savvier then what she was messing with — and she wasn’t messing around.
Pelosi’s Congress passed Wall Street reforms, got rid of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” committed our country on a course toward clean energy, and twisted enough arms to get something called the Affordable Care Act passed by a whisker. Hell, those are just a few headlines. I could type 30 more column inches on what this titan accomplished during her historic, four-year term.
In short: SHE-HANDLED-THIS.
So with order restored and our nation on its way back from the abyss, the Democrats did what they absolutely do best: took a big, damn nap.
The Radical Right Tea Party blew a hole through truth and decency in the 2010 Midterms, and after four years of restoring order to the House, Pelosi was done as Speaker.
Six years later, the Democrats still in a Van Winkle slumber sat out the 2016 elections and the repulsive Trump, replete with a Republican Senate and Congress, was elected president.
The Democrats awoke from their nap in a panic and started sifting through the rubble for answers while tripping all over themselves in the darkness.
Again, is this ringing any bells?
It was going to be a long, terrifying two years.
In fact, it was a long, terrifying two years. But something magic was happening … While the orange beast terrorized the countryside, he was being met with real resistance. I’m talking get-out-on-the-street-and-do-something resistance.
If the Democrats were completely outraged by Trump and his GOP, they were even more outraged at themselves for letting it happen in the first place. A resolve to clean up that mess gripped the Left.
Then, just like in 2006, the 2018 Midterms came along and hopefully in the nick of time.
The Democrats demolished the GOP at the polls that year, casting nearly nine millions more votes. Despite being gerrymandered to the point of suffocation, the Dems seized 40 seats in Congress. They were back in charge, but who would lead them?
What?! Are you kidding?! Who would lead them?!?!
Nancy Pelosi would lead them, that’s who, dammit.
You got a mess to clean up? You need order restored? You need a titan to stand up to a bully? You need strength and honor staring down the crooked face of evil and corruption?
You call on the strongest leader in the world.
Pelosi rebuilt committees brick by brick, tore in to the ghastly Trump and tore up his slobbery speeches. Nobody, I mean NOBODY publicly took it to Trump like she did. He had no idea what to do with a strong woman, who was half his size, and better than him in every, single way.
Pelosi and her Democratic Congress put the brakes on Trump and his odious presidency, and helped Joe Biden run the madman out of office in 2020 — but not before his appalling attack on America just months after that election. Pelosi, of course, was in our Capitol that day, while Trump’s anti-America MAGA filth were hunting her down.
She took charge, and was caught on camera saying of Trump:
“I want to punch him out, and I’m going to go to jail, and I’m going to be happy.”
Instead, and unfortunately, Trump slithered away from his violent attack because Biden’s Justice Department lacked even half of Pelosi’s strength and resolve.
With Biden in office, Pelosi did what she does best and got the votes to pass the historic Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS bill and the bipartisan infrastructure law.
In 2022, Republicans reclaimed the House and Pelosi stepped aside from formal leadership, tossing the baton to New York’s Hakeem Jeffries.
These days, the weak and grotesque Republican Speaker Mike Johnson has rammed through one bill of significance and it helps only the billionaires in this country, who helped install his rancid party in office.
Johnson replacing Pelosi as Speaker is the flea replacing the lion.
And if you are reading all this, and still have the inclination, to start with some, “Yeah, buts …,” concerning Pelosi you’ve missed the entire point of this column and her career.
You can attach “yeah buts” to Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, King, or Kennedy … but they are all recognized as iconic figures.
Like these men, Nancy Pelosi is a singular person in American history. Her tirelessly work in service to this country, has made it a better, safer, healthier, and smarter place to live.
So how do you honor this woman’s sacrifice and leadership?
You thank her.
You build monuments to her.