It's Time for Nancy Pelosi to Go
Nancy Pelosi
On Sunday  House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi  who was once the highest-ranking woman in government in American history  appeared on Meet the Press and was asked about the sexual harassment allegations against Michigan congressman John Conyers. She blew it.
âWe are strengthened by due process â the House minority leader told Chuck Todd days after Conyers himself confirmed that his office had paid a settlement in response to a 2105 sexual harassment complaint. âJust because someone is accused  and was it one accusation? Is it two? I think there has to beâJohn Conyers is an icon in our country.â After an uproar and Conyersâs resignation from the House Ethics Committee  she quickly backtracked  issuing a statement that said  âNo matter how great an individualâs legacy  it is not a license for harassment.â On Tuesday  the Detroit News reported that another former Conyers staffer had come forward to allege harassment by the longtime congressman  and on Thursday  Pelosi  said Conyers should resign.
Still  Pelosiâs fumble is just the latest example of why sheâs no longer the best person to lead House Democrats. The Democrats have many problems  but they canât solve them with an aging leadership that has led to them being stuck in the minority for four House election cycles. Republicans have no problem switching leaders even when theyâre in powerâa hard-right caucus forced House Speaker John Boehner to step down in 2015âbut Democrats have stuck with  Pelosi  since 2003. Thatâs too long.
When  Pelosi  came to lead the House Democrats back then  after Minority Leader Dick Gephardt stepped down to run for president  the party was at a low point. It had lost seats in the 2002 midterms  just the third time since the 1930s that the party controlling the White House had picked up seats in the House during a midterm. A year later  President George W. Bush won reelection and picked up seats in the Senate and House along with it.
But surfing on an anti-war  anti-Bush wave in 2006  Democrats snatched 31 House spots and  Pelosi  became Speaker  the first woman to ever reach that height. In 2008  Democrats rode the coattails of Barack Obama to pick up even more seats  before the Tea Party backlash knocked them out of the majority in the House.
In those two years when Democrats had a unified government   Pelosi  shepherded several pieces of landmark legislation through the House  including the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and Dodd-Frank financial industry reform  despite presiding over a chamber full of conservative Democrats.  She  also helped get the Affordable Care Act passed  first with a public option and then  after right-leaning Senate Democrats blocked that version  in its final form.
The six years since have not been as kind. After  her  term as Speaker ended when Republicans stormed to a House majority in 2010   Pelosi  stayed on as minority leader  even though losing a majority is usually seen as a failure for which the leader should be held accountable. Before  Pelosi   the last former Speaker to take the minority leader seat after losing a majority was Joseph William Martin Jr. of Massachusetts  who was the Republican House leader from 1939 to 1959 and served two nonconsecutive terms as Speaker. (In the Senate  Democrat Harry Reid stayed on as Minority Leader for two years following the 2014 elections  but announced his retirement early in 2015.)
 Pelosi  and the rest of the aging House leadership have made it impossible for younger members of the party to take over  which has no doubt contributed to the perception that the party is out of touch.  Pelosi   Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland  and assistant Democratic leader Jim Clyburn of South Carolina are all in their late 70s  but more importantly have all been in the leadership for at least a decade.
There are two reasons why  Pelosi  has held on for so long. One is that though some Democrats oppose  her   they canât put together a credible challenge. When Democrats lost the majority in 2010  North Carolina Congressman Heath Shuler  a former NFL quarterback  won just 43 votes in his bid to replace her. (Shuler retired from Congress a few years later.) After the top-to-bottom failure of the 2016 election  Ohio congressman Tim Ryan ran against her on a quasi-populist platform. Ryan  who voted for an anti-abortion amendment during the 2009 debate over the Affordable Care Act  implied that the party focused too much on social issues. He got a bigger share of votes than Shuler did  but  Pelosi  won the election handily after finally promising positions of power be handed to more junior Democrats.
The second reason  which also partially answers why no prominent House Democrat has ever stepped up to take on Pelosi  is that sheâs a very good fundraiser.  Pelosi  has raised almost $600 million since 2002  and has raised more than $25 million alone this year  most of which  she  gave to the House Democratsâ campaign arm.
â She  is a great fundraiser  but if the money weâre raising through  her  leadership is not helping us win elections  then we have to have this conversation now â Democratic congresswoman Kathleen Rice of New York said in a June interview. (On Wednesday  Rice sharply criticized  Pelosi  for  her  handling of the Conyersâs harassment scandal  saying Pelosiâs comments on Sunday âset women back andâquite frankly  our party backâdecades.â)
On Sunday  House Minority Leader  [TGT]   who was once the highest-ranking woman in government in American history  appeared on Meet the Press and was asked about the sexual harassment allegations against Michigan congressman John Conyers. She blew it.
âWe are strengthened by due process â the House minority leader told Chuck Todd days after Conyers himself confirmed that his office had paid a settlement in response to a 2105 sexual harassment complaint. âJust because someone is accused  and was it one accusation? Is it two? I think there has to beâJohn Conyers is an icon in our country.â After an uproar and Conyersâs resignation from the House Ethics Committee  she quickly backtracked  issuing a statement that said  âNo matter how great an individualâs legacy  it is not a license for harassment.â On Tuesday  the Detroit News reported that another former Conyers staffer had come forward to allege harassment by the longtime congressman  and on Thursday  Pelosi  said Conyers should resign.
Still  Pelosiâs fumble is just the latest example of why sheâs no longer the best person to lead House Democrats. The Democrats have many problems  but they canât solve them with an aging leadership that has led to them being stuck in the minority for four House election cycles. Republicans have no problem switching leaders even when theyâre in powerâa hard-right caucus forced House Speaker John Boehner to step down in 2015âbut Democrats have stuck with  Pelosi  since 2003. Thatâs too long.
When  Pelosi  came to lead the House Democrats back then  after Minority Leader Dick Gephardt stepped down to run for president  the party was at a low point. It had lost seats in the 2002 midterms  just the third time since the 1930s that the party controlling the White House had picked up seats in the House during a midterm. A year later  President George W. Bush won reelection and picked up seats in the Senate and House along with it.
But surfing on an anti-war  anti-Bush wave in 2006  Democrats snatched 31 House spots and  Pelosi  became Speaker  the first woman to ever reach that height. In 2008  Democrats rode the coattails of Barack Obama to pick up even more seats  before the Tea Party backlash knocked them out of the majority in the House.
In those two years when Democrats had a unified government   Pelosi  shepherded several pieces of landmark legislation through the House  including the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and Dodd-Frank financial industry reform  despite presiding over a chamber full of conservative Democrats.  She  also helped get the Affordable Care Act passed  first with a public option and then  after right-leaning Senate Democrats blocked that version  in its final form.
The six years since have not been as kind. After  her  term as Speaker ended when Republicans stormed to a House majority in 2010   Pelosi  stayed on as minority leader  even though losing a majority is usually seen as a failure for which the leader should be held accountable. Before  Pelosi   the last former Speaker to take the minority leader seat after losing a majority was Joseph William Martin Jr. of Massachusetts  who was the Republican House leader from 1939 to 1959 and served two nonconsecutive terms as Speaker. (In the Senate  Democrat Harry Reid stayed on as Minority Leader for two years following the 2014 elections  but announced his retirement early in 2015.)
 Pelosi  and the rest of the aging House leadership have made it impossible for younger members of the party to take over  which has no doubt contributed to the perception that the party is out of touch.  Pelosi   Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland  and assistant Democratic leader Jim Clyburn of South Carolina are all in their late 70s  but more importantly have all been in the leadership for at least a decade.
There are two reasons why  Pelosi  has held on for so long. One is that though some Democrats oppose  her   they canât put together a credible challenge. When Democrats lost the majority in 2010  North Carolina Congressman Heath Shuler  a former NFL quarterback  won just 43 votes in his bid to replace her. (Shuler retired from Congress a few years later.) After the top-to-bottom failure of the 2016 election  Ohio congressman Tim Ryan ran against her on a quasi-populist platform. Ryan  who voted for an anti-abortion amendment during the 2009 debate over the Affordable Care Act  implied that the party focused too much on social issues. He got a bigger share of votes than Shuler did  but  Pelosi  won the election handily after finally promising positions of power be handed to more junior Democrats.
The second reason  which also partially answers why no prominent House Democrat has ever stepped up to take on Pelosi  is that sheâs a very good fundraiser.  Pelosi  has raised almost $600 million since 2002  and has raised more than $25 million alone this year  most of which  she  gave to the House Democratsâ campaign arm.
â She  is a great fundraiser  but if the money weâre raising through  her  leadership is not helping us win elections  then we have to have this conversation now â Democratic congresswoman Kathleen Rice of New York said in a June interview. (On Wednesday  Rice sharply criticized  Pelosi  for  her  handling of the Conyersâs harassment scandal  saying Pelosiâs comments on Sunday âset women back andâquite frankly  our party backâdecades.â)