On the Awfulness that is Nancy Pelosi

I don't think my reader(s) have any misunderstanding as to where my political sensibilities lie. However, I too am kind of sick and tired of Nancy Pelosi. Given that the Democratic Party styles itself as the young, the working class, and minorities, it is a bit disingenuous to have a party leadership that is nearly uniformly white, septuagenarian, and wealthy. However, I have to hand it to Nancy Pelosi that, as a politician and a member of leadership, she has been very effective at keeping her caucus unified (mostly) and in line (mostly), and raising money for candidates.

She has also been remarkably free of scandal, particularly given the GOP demonization of her and its ability to manufacture scandals out of thin air (Emails! Benghazi!).

How does she compare with recent GOP leaders in the house?

• Newt Gingrich - shut down government, impeached Bill Clinton for having an affair while having an affair (as his wife lie dying of cancer);
• Dennis Hastert - molested teenage boys
• Paul Ryan - no real scandal, but poses as a deficit hawk and his sole achievement as Speaker is to explode the budge deficit during an ostensibly "good" economy
• Tom DeLay - convicted of money laundering
• John Boehner - uses his position as congressional leader to stifle any reformation of nation's marijuana laws, retires, promptly takes a seat on the board of a medical marijuana manufacturing company

As I said, I am a bit tired of Nancy Pelosi and would like to see new Democratic leadership. (To that point, I'm a bit tired of Ann DeLaney as well and would like to see some new Democratic leadership in Indiana . . . perhaps it could be something "other" than a permanent super-minority party).

However, given Rep. Pelosi's counterparts, she doesn't look all that bad.