Tag: David Obey

Democrats might want to keep in mind something that humorist Will Rogers famously quipped, "I am not a member of any organized political party. I’m a Democrat.” Rogers’ sentiment echoes today as House Democrats decide whether to keep Nancy Pelosi as their leader and thereby return her as speaker of the House. For Republicans, Pelosi is the piñata that keeps donors giving, much as Ted Kennedy was to a previous generation of Republicans. Like Kennedy, she is someone who can work across the aisle, but unlike Kennedy, she is a shrewd general who knows how to get her members to toe the line. Nancy Pelosi is “the best speaker I’ve ever seen,” said David Obey, a former Democratic congressman from Wisconsin. As he told Robert Draper of the New York Times,“She understands her caucus, and she doesn’t run it like a San Francisco liberal. She runs it by trying to find its center of gravity. A number of incoming freshmen Democrats ran on the promise of voting for someone else as their leader. “The only time I was ever in the Democratic speaker’s office was when I became speaker,” Pelosi told the Times. “When I decided to run, the first thing I heard was: ‘Who said she could run?’” Adding insult to injury, party bosses said, “‘Why don’t women just make a list of things they want done, and we’ll do them?’ We’re not talking about the 1800s — we’re talking about 19 years ago!” Although a group of Democrats opposed to Pelosi has signed a letter signaling their intention to vote against her, odds are Pelosi will reclaim the speakership.