Her open threats to rivals epitomize the old-school gutter politics that are integral to her party’s problems.
.. Pelosi’s unabashed use of open threats and her death grip on power are a very big problem for her party.
.. She pointedly reminded them that “every action has a reaction . . . every attack provokes a massive reaction.”
.. Anyone who has led them to four consecutive defeats, bringing their House caucus to its lowest point in the last 90 years
.. Though reliably liberal, she is not a radical or a left-winger in the Bernie Sanders mold. To the contrary, she is a traditional machine Democratic politician, who likes to boast of her fundraising prowess. And that, rather than her political stands, is why her critics are right. In that sense, she represents everything that is wrong with the Democrats.
.. While Democrats like to say that they are the party of the young and that this portends their eventual return to power, they are led by a sclerotic band of elderly power brokers
.. The Democrats’ House leadership team of Pelosi, her longtime antagonist Steny Hoyer, and James Clyburn are, respectively, 77, 78, and 76. When you consider that the Democrats’ two leading presidential contenders last year were the 69-year-old Hillary Clinton and the 75-year-old Bernie Sanders, it’s little wonder that Democrats are frustrated with their party’s inability to promote younger and fresher faces.
.. The Democrats’ House leadership team of Pelosi, her longtime antagonist Steny Hoyer, and James Clyburn are, respectively, 77, 78, and 76. When you consider that the Democrats’ two leading presidential contenders last year were the 69-year-old Hillary Clinton and the 75-year-old Bernie Sanders, it’s little wonder that Democrats are frustrated with their party’s inability to promote younger and fresher faces.
.. If, as many Democrats are now confessing, their brand is even worse than that of the Republicans, Pelosi is the face of that problem.
.. the Democrats remain a party that hasn’t had a fresh idea since the New Deal or the Great Society.