On Friday, Madam Speaker took to her Twitter page and announced to the political world what it has been waiting anxiously to hear: she may not be Speaker much longer, but she sure as hell wants to be the Democratic Minority Leader in the House.
“Many of our colleagues have called with their recommendations on how to continue our fight for the middle class, and have encouraged me to run for House Democratic Leader,” Pelosi said in a written statement. “Based on those discussions, and driven by the urgency of protecting health care reform, Wall Street reform, and Social Security and Medicare, I have decided to run.”
Her decision to seek a secondary leadership position should be a cake walk for the soon to be “former” Speaker, right? WRONG! Not everyone is as enthralled with Pelosi’s leadership abilities as is Pelosi herself. Moderate Democratic Rep. Dan Boren of Oklahoma was the latest to urge Pelosi to step aside and not run for House minority leader, saying he would rather support a more centrist candidate. “I cannot in good conscience support Nancy Pelosi as our leader,” Boren said. “I think that it is important for the Democratic Party to move in a new direction for the sake of our country. Democrats and Republicans need leaders who are going to work together.”
And Boren is not alone in his thinking. Democratic Reps. Heath Schuler of North Carolina and Jim Matheson of Utah, have also gone public with the opinion they too would prefer a new, more moderate Democratic leader. “I think based on the outcome of this election, we should all acknowledge what the American people said — and they are looking for change. And I think when you, as a political party, suffer losses of historic proportions, it makes sense to change things up,” Matheson said late last week. “Therefore, I don’t think she should be running for leader.”
