Why We Like Nancy Pelosi as Speaker

This is from an article in the Washington Post:

Allies of Republican Christopher Shays of Connecticut say the congressman is being unfairly frozen out by Democrats who are blocking his bills -- just because he narrowly survived his election.

They point to an amendment he offered last week that would have required the Department of Homeland Security to share information with Interpol. The amendment was blocked.

It was no secret that before the election, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), then the House minority leader, had strongly warned Democrats against working with Republicans and giving the GOP opportunities to showcase faux bipartisanship for constituents. It was also no secret that Shays was on top of her list as a member to avoid since the Democrats were after his seat.

Readers of this blog might have recognized that we can't stand Christopher Shays. He is one of those "moderate" Republicans who likes to brag about how "bi-partisan" he is but always manage to vote to enable Bush to carry out his misdeeds. When the money goes down, he is always betting on the administration's side. Our dislike of Shays, however, is not why we like what Pelosi is doing.

We like it because all too often Democrats want to demonstrate to the media how "bi-partisan" they are and play nice with Republicans. This may earn some praise from pundits like David Broder, but it doesn't earn anything but contempt from Republicans. Why? Because a lot of Republicans, especially in Washington, are bullies and the only thing they understand is power and the willingness to use it.

Pelosi understands power and she is willing to use it. Now, unlike people like Dick "The Shooter" Cheney, she doesn't do it with a sneer on her face and she doesn't tell her opponents to "Go **** Yourself", but she gets the job done.

This, of course, confounds the Washington media. The role they have for Democrats is that we are the "Mommy Party" and we are supposed to be all touchy-feely and nurturing. Well, Pelosi is a Mom and she knows how to kick butt. This makes her doubly effective. She presents a nice image and has a backbone of steel. A great combination for the first woman elected as Speaker of the House.