Will Pelosi's 3 Month Tenure As Speaker Bring Us Someone Worse? Expect A Wall Street-Owned New Dem

About 6 months ago I heard from two impeccable sources that Pelosi only wanted 100 days as Speaker-- presumably to pass PAYGO-- and that after that she'd GO, retire from Congress, making way for her very popular and talented daughter, Christine. Almost everyone told me I was out of my mind, including staffers of hers, members of Congress and a close friend of hers who flat-out asked her. I even got a call telling me to STFU and mind my own business. That always works so well with me. Back in June it goaded me to write:

Some members have told me she's trying to broker a deal that would allow her to become Speaker again if she promises to step down after 100 days and retire-- allowing for a special election is San Francisco with her daughter Christine likely to follow in her footsteps. (caveat: I like Christine; I don't like political dynasties).

So Friday... an L.A. Times caught on: Nancy Pelosi hints at short-term lease on House speakership. Will this make members of the caucus more likely to vote for her? If she leaves, at least progressives who feel honor-bound to support her will have an opportunity to back someone who isn't far worse than Pelosi (basically all the unaccomplished nightmares who have been jockeying for the job from Rahm Emanuel pet Blue Dog Cheri Bustos to New Dems Kathleen Rice and Adam Schiff. The Times quotes Pelosi saying "I see myself as a transitional figure. I have things to do. Books to write; places to go; grandchildren, first and foremost, to love."

She hastened to add she was not imposing a limit on her tenure. “Do you think I would make myself a lame duck right here over this double-espresso?” the San Francisco Democrat said Thursday in a downtown Miami cafe, with a raised eyebrow and a laugh.

By implicitly limiting her time as speaker, the 78-year-old Pelosi could ease the pressure to stand aside by signaling her willingness for a new and younger generation of leaders to take over sooner rather than later.

Pelosi has quietly been grooming potential successors, among them Rep. Adam Schiff of Burbank, and though she said she would be delighted to hand the speaker’s gavel to another woman-- “Oh, yeah!” she exclaimed-- she has no plans to try to force a choice.

“Whoever is next is not up to me,” she said. “If I were saying, ‘I want so-and-so to be my successor,’ that’s not right.”

...A recent series of polls conducted in half a dozen hotly contested California House districts illustrated the political dynamic at work. In each of the six districts, more than 60% of voters said they opposed the idea of Pelosi becoming speaker, according to the survey conducted for the Los Angeles Times by UC Berkeley’s Institute for Government Studies.

Even among registered Democrats, anywhere from a quarter to a third of those sampled in those districts said they opposed her regaining the gavel, and at least some Democratic candidates are responding.

“I will see who is holding their hand up to be speaker of the House,” Harley Rouda, who is running against Rep. Dana Rohrabacher along the Orange County coast, recently said on MSNBC. “I will do appropriate due diligence and make a decision then.”

Still, Pelosi remains a prodigious fundraiser and, in certain blue-shaded parts of the country, a welcome guest. Just this week she hit more than a half dozen cities in Massachusetts and Florida.

In the most recent campaign-finance reporting period, Pelosi raised $34 million for Democrats, boosting her total since entering the House leadership in 2002 as minority whip to more than $700 million.

She maintains a deeply loyal following among fellow lawmakers, many of whom credit her with keeping their party within hailing distance of the majority. (The party needs a gain of 23 seats in next month’s midterms to win back control of the House.)

“If you win the World Series, you open the Champagne and the manager doesn’t get fired,” said Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Northridge). “And it’s the same thing here.”

The vote for Democratic leadership will take place after Thanksgiving, allowing time to pass after the Nov. 6 election. As yet, no serious rivals have emerged.

Democrats will vote for speaker twice. The first election is a secret ballot tabulated behind closed doors. The winner of that election will go to the full House floor as the Democratic nominee for speaker.

Pelosi expressed no doubt she had the votes to win. “I haven’t asked anyone for their support,” she said, later adding that doesn’t mean they haven’t told her she has their support.