A.B. Stoddard: Pelosi’s lost leverage

For Nancy Pelosi, November is the cruelest month. At least, it is this November.

Unanimously elected House Democratic leader for a seventh term this week, the first female (and now former) House Speaker is also beginning her 14th term serving her San Francisco district in Congress, at the nadir of a leadership career many Democrats have suggested should already be over. 

{mosads}While Pelosi, 74, helped lead the Democratic Caucus to historic victories in 2006 and 2008, she has also presided over House Democrats’ staggering losses in 2010 and now 2014 that have left the party with fewer House seats since the 1920s.

Pelosi’s response to defeat has amplified the tension and frustration among many Democrats. She spent the days since the election in a combative and defiant posture, not only refusing to step down but rationalizing that because Democrats lost badly, she needs to stay, as if they have no hope of making it out of this tunnel without her. She even implied this was such a selfless act and that, had Democrats won the House back (and she could be Speaker again), she would have stepped down — to which even her own colleagues responded with laughter.

Instead of working to unify disheartened Democrats, Pelosi stoked a family fight within the caucus, one she subsequently lost. In an effort to further cement the tight hold on the leadership team that has characterized her tenure as Democratic leader, Pelosi chose her close friend, Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), over Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), who had seniority, in the selection of a new ranking membership on the House Energy Committee to replace retiring Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). The fight not only split the leadership, with Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) supporting Pallone, but the Congressional Black Caucus, which strongly favors the seniority system, opposed Pelosi in support of Pallone as well. Pallone prevailed over Eshoo Wednesday morning in what was clearly a sharp, albeit anonymous, rebuke to Pelosi.

To make matters worse, Pelosi turned down the request of Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), a combat veteran who lost both legs in the Iraq War, to vote in leadership elections by proxy while she is pregnant and under doctor’s orders not to travel. Pelosi said doing so would establish a precedent, but given that she said so the same week she was trying to defy the precedent of seniority in committee assignments, many Democrats criticized the decision openly. Pelosi was then pilloried for it by Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show” Tuesday.

Pelosi’s leverage, among loyalists as well as those who wanted her out but supported her anyway, is that no one can match her fundraising ability. Because of the power she has built up among donors, younger members are too scared to try. In a 75-minute post-election call with members, Pelosi insisted she knew how to position the party to win two years from now: “I know where the money is,” she said, “I know where to get it.”

Pelosi also recently lashed out at the media for asking if she should go. She asked if any reporters present had ever asked Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) “when they lost the Senate three times in a row … ‘aren’t you getting a little old, Mitch? Shouldn’t you step aside?’ ” She then added, “It is just interesting as a woman to see how many times that question is asked of a woman and how many times that question is never asked of Mitch McConnell.”

The problem is that McConnell had never led his party in the majority, as Pelosi has, and then brought his party down in defeat. The complaints about Pelosi remaining leader aren’t about her age or her gender, but that what she is doing isn’t working. 

Stoddard is an associate editor of The Hill.