It was just days after what may have been her most hard-fought and historic legislative triumph, and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was smiling and looking ahead to her birthday.
“You know what I want for my birthday?” the most powerful woman on the US political stage asked reporters. “I want a pool table. I’ve always wanted a pool table. I want a pool table. I want to get better at it.”
Her comments — an unusually unguarded, almost chatty moment for the third-ranking US elected official — came on Thursday as she savored victory after a year-long fight to pass US President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul.
Pelosi, who turned 70 on Friday, now faces another daunting challenge: steering a still-ambitious agenda through a fractious Democratic caucus, past Republican opposition, ahead of the November mid-term elections which are expected to deeply dent her majority in the House of Representatives.
Republican House minority leader John Boehner recently warned swing-district Democrats she was leading them “over a cliff” by driving the healthcare bill through the House despite deep public misgivings.
Republicans have caricatured her as the villain “Cruella” from Disney’s 101 Dalmations, and raised money with a Web site, firenancypelosi.com, that shows her, fists raised, against a backdrop of flames.
If history is any guide, the 253-seat Democratic majority will shrink considerably — but if Pelosi has her way, even vulnerable rank-and-file Democrats won’t shrink from the historic social policy change.
“Our members know what works in their district and how they communicate with their constituents,” the San Francisco Democrat said. “But it’s a great message to bring.”
Asked about unlikely prospects of cooperation with Republicans, Pelosi answered: “Bipartisanship is nice, but it cannot be a substitute for action, not having it cannot prevent us from going forward.”
It’s a principle she has applied all year, passing a nearly US$800 billion economic stimulus package through the House with not a single Republican vote, and then a bill to fight climate change that drew just eight Republicans.
There have been many women advisers to US presidents, three women US secretaries of state, two women US vice presidential hopefuls from major parties — but only one woman Speaker of the House, second in line for the presidency.
Nancy Patricia D’Alesandro was born to a political family with roots in Venice, Genoa, Abruzzi, Campobasso and Sicily and raised in Baltimore’s “Little Italy.”
“We were devoutly Catholic, deeply patriotic, proud of our Italian American heritage, and staunchly Democratic,” she once wrote.
She was first elected to Congress in 1987, joined the Democratic House leadership in 2001 and became the first woman to lead a major US party in the House in 2002, rising to Speaker after Democrats won a majority in 2006.
“Today, we have broken the marble ceiling. For our daughters and our granddaughters, the sky is the limit, anything is possible for them,” she said upon taking office in January 2007.
Pelosi has been a force on US foreign policy, notably leveling forceful attacks on China’s human rights record, criticizing the war in Iraq, and making frequent trips to Italy.
Democrats credit her with resurrecting the healthcare bill after Democrats lost their Senate supermajority in the Senate — and say she never wavered.
“We’ll go through the gate. If the gate’s closed, we’ll go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we’ll pole-vault in. If that doesn’t work, we’ll parachute in,” she said in January.
Asked after the House approved the overhaul on Sunday last week whether she was the most powerful woman in 100 years, Pelosi told ABC television: “That sounds good.”
Sometimes, though, even the most powerful woman doesn’t get what she wants: An aide said on Friday that it was not clear whether Pelosi would get her pool table.
But she did receive roughly 2,600 roses from admiring supporters, whom she thanked in a video message in which she said she had given half to recovering US soldiers at a Washington military hospital, and the other half to congressional staff as thanks over the health legislation.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS