Midterm elections push House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to step down. Biden should pay attention.
Midterm elections push House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to step down. Biden should pay attention.
As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said herself, quoting scripture on the House floor Thursday: “For everything there is a season — a time for every purpose under heaven.”
For Pelosi, the season to be leader of House Democrats has passed. She made the right decision this week to step away from leadership in January, when a new Republican majority will take over the House, and the right — even generous — decision to stay in Congress for now. She’ll continue to represent San Francisco while serving as an invaluable source of guidance and resolve for the next generation of House Democratic leaders.
Pelosi’s decision to step aside is also important for sending the message that politicians can keep their promises. She now fulfills a pledge she made in 2018.
At 82, Pelosi is a historic figure, of course: the first female House speaker and one of the strongest speakers, if not the strongest, that America has ever seen. She has endured through the tea party movement and the Trump era, a recession, a pandemic, a violent coup attempt at the Capitol and a brutal hammer attack on her husband apparently inspired by irrational hatred of her.
“She has been the steady hand on the gavel during some of the most turbulent times the nation has ever confronted,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, 52, chair of the Democratic Caucus and Pelosi’s likely successor.
Rating: 5