With a morale boost bound to change the atmosphere of Washington, the Democrats captured the House for the first time since 1994. Leading them will be San Francisco Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the nation's first female speaker of the house.
Her conservative detractors use the San Francisco liberal moniker to connote a lot of things about Mrs. Pelosi. She is zealously liberal; determined to raise the minimum wage, to enforce the recommendations of the Sept. 11 Commission and consistently opposes both the Federal Marriage Amendment and a ban on flag burning and challenges to civil liberties.
Republicans tried to paint her as a liability in the midst of the midterm elections, as a left-wing extremist bent on destroying the American family ' partially because she comes from San Francisco, a city in which acceptance of the gay and lesbian community sends Midwestern traditionalists running. She is intensely passionate about her philosophy; something that helped her become the House minority leader in 2002.
The present speaker, Dennis Hastert, is a curmudgeon conservative who has been faulted for hiding the Mark Foley scandal, as well as being a Capitol Hill lapdog to President Bush's political agenda.
Pelosi is the liberal counterbalance to a rampaging neo-conservative flock, that of Hastert and Ohio Republican John Boehner. She is the archetype of partisanship in a time when both parties are again pushing away from the middle to attract voters. But that might not necessarily be undesirable. The do nothing Congresses of late have been so centrist and fearful of appearing radical that a repulsively low number of viable legislative acts have been passed.
Not surprisingly, she vowed to work with Republicans in a strictly bi-partisan manner. Whether she actually works with her colleagues across the aisle or merely attempts to block anymore of Bush's plans ' and thus transform him from a president of consolidated power to a lame duck ' she will be taking Congress in a new direction. As with much of the Democratic fanfare associated with the toppling of the GOP, any new bearing for legislators is likely to be an improvement, if only slightly.
The move will make her third in line for the presidency, after Vice President Dick Cheney. That means that for the first time two of the first five fallbacks for the Oval Office are going to be women (the other being No. 5, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice).
It's one for the history books; but, with any luck, it will be a major shift in the legacy of our lethargic legislators.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of the executive editors. Send your submissions to posteditorial@ohiou.edu.
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Nancy Pelosi set to take Congressional reins after GOP tried to use her as scare tactic
