by Naftali Bendavid
Amid polls showing scant public approval for Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is significantly stepping up her public appearances, visiting Sunday talk shows, holding regular press conferences, appearing on ABC’s colorful “The View”-and lunching with reporters Tuesday to boast of the Democrats’ “terrific legislative progress.”
This spate of appearances, expected to continue and even increase, comes after months in which Pelosi kept a relatively low profile following her historic ascent to the speakership. She now seems eager to push the message that the Democrats have accomplished a great deal since their takeover last November and to preempt Republican efforts to decry a “do-nothing Congress” as next year’s election approaches.
Meeting several dozen reporters Tuesday at a Washington hotel, Pelosi any number of times declared herself “proud” of the Democratic Congress, citing achievements including an increase in veterans’ benefits, a minimum wage hike, a college affordability law, an energy bill-and passage of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), now at the center of a veto fight with President Bush.”We have drained the swamp,” Pelosi said. “We have passed historic legislation.”
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Democrats have always been divided about Pelosi as a high-profile leader. Some fear her image as a “San Francisco liberal” hurts the party, while other appreciate her charisma as the first woman to lead a major party in Congress.
Pelosi denied Tuesday that her new publicity campaign stems from low poll numbers or political strategy, saying she had to concentrate at first on passing the Democrats’ agenda and only lately has become free to publicize those achievements.
Pelosi became most animated Tuesday when talking about the Iraq war, acknowledging that it has “eclipsed everything” and that Democrats have not been as successful as they hoped in ending it. Pelosi herself has come under considerable fire, including in her own district, for not doing more to conclude the war.
“It is not just the opinion of the base of the Democratic Party that this war should end, it’s the opinion of the American people, largely across-the-board,” Pelosi said. “Democrats, Independents, and a reasonable chunk of the Republican Party as well. They want the war to end. They don’t want to hear about 60 votes in the Senate-‘Just do it!’ “
Pelosi has been buffeted by the anger and passion of liberal activists war, with whom she appears to sympathize even thought she cannot grant their wish. The speaker Tuesday appeared to feel caught between those activists and her role as a government leader.
“We have to make responsible decisions in the Congress that are not driven by the dissatisfaction of anybody who wants the war to end tomorrow,” Pelosi said. “God bless them for their passion on this issue. I believe that mostly they are right. But I do believe that we are responsible for the responsible, safe redeployment of our troops out of Iraq, and that is what we will continue to fight for.”
Pelosi then launched into a surprisingly personal description of the protesters camped outside her house: “I’ve had, for four or five months, people sitting outside my home, going into my garden in San Francisco, angering my neighbors, hanging their clothes from the trees, building all kinds of things-Buddhas, I don’t know what they are-couches, sofas, permanent living facilities on my front sidewalk. You can imagine my neighbors’ reaction to all of this. And if they were poor and they were sleeping on my sidewalk, they would be arrested for loitering. But because they have ‘Impeach Bush’ across their chest, it’s the First Amendment, four or five months into that. So I’m well aware of the unhappiness of the base.”
More immediately, Pelosi and the Democrats are engaged in a battle with President Bush over a $35 billion expansion of the children’s health program, which easily passed Congress but which Bush has vetoed. Democrats are trying to persuade about 13 House Republicans to switch sides and help override the veto, but that appears unlikely.
Pelosi was clearly prepared for a question about Graeme Frost, a 12-year-old boy who has spoken out in favor of expanding SCHIP on behalf of the Democrats. Conservative bloggers have questioned whether Frost actually belongs to the sort of economically struggling family SCHIP is designed to help.
“I think that the attack on this family is just breaking new ground and stooping to new lows in terms of what happens in Washington, D.C.,” Pelosi said. “I think it’s a sad statement about how bankrupt some of these people are in their arguments against SCHIP that they attack a 12-year-old.”
The only time Pelosi appeared off-stride Tuesday was when a reporter asked her to name the biggest mistake she and the Democrats had made since taking power. Without acknowledging that it was a mistake, Pelosi confessed she initially thought the Democrats could make more headway in ending the war.
“For a long time we had confidence that we could get bipartisan support to end the war and also do so with strong bicameral initiatives,” Pelosi said-but then the Senate defeated a measure to ensure that the troops got as much time at home as deployed. “When they rejected that, it sent a clear message to me that we had placed our hopes in a place that wasn’t going to come through.”