Staying Power
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Politics STAYING Pelosi, pictured POWER at the Capitol in February, has raised hundreds of millions of dollars Loathed by the right, under fire for Democrats, yet many of them see from the left. Nancy Pelosi says her as a millstone she isn’t going anywhere for the party BY MOLLY BALL PHOTOGRAPH BY GILLIAN LAUB FOR TIME Pelosi addresses Politics members of her caucus during a meeting in February Nancy Pelosi stopped caring about what people think of her a long time ago, so she has no qualms about eating ice cream for breakfast with a stranger. Dark as their biggest asset, and hope to mo- numbers and surged to the polls. Many chocolate, two scoops, waffle cone. It’s a tivate their voters in the midterm elec- of them look a lot like Pelosi once did. freezing January morning in Baltimore’s tions by putting her image in television They are brainy, liberal and comfort- Little Italy, where Pelosi grew up in the ads. Meanwhile, despite the hundreds of ably situated moms who have looked at 1950s. “You know what’s good about millions of dollars she has raised for her the political system with the exaspera- ice cream in this weather?” she says. “It party, nearly 60 Democratic House can- tion of a person who has seen her hus- doesn’t melt down your arm while you’re didates have returned the favor by call- band get the laundry wrong and realized eating it.” ing for new leadership. Alexandria Oc- that she’s going to have to do it herself. If We are sitting in an Italian café on asio-Cortez’s June 26 primary upset of Democrats regain congressional power Albemarle Street, alone save for the staff one of Pelosi’s lieutenants, Represen- in November, as most experts expect, it and Pelosi’s security detail, to whom she tative Joe Crowley of New York, high- will be by riding a tidal wave of female has offered coffee. The Trump era has lighted the restlessness of the party’s rage. But rather than tout their female many Democrats in a panic, but Pelosi grassroots, and Pelosi’s erstwhile allies leader—the first woman Speaker in his- inhabits a more cheerful reality. She is in the Congressional Black Caucus have tory, and the odds-on favorite to reclaim convinced that America has hit bottom, pushed Representative James Clyburn the title—many Democratic politicians, has seen the error of its ways and is ready to challenge her. Even the New York both male and female, are running in the to put her back in charge. Times editorialized that she should go. opposite direction. In this season of fe- The 78-year-old former House Speaker None of this fazes Pelosi. “If I weren’t male political empowerment, Pelosi’s It is not in Pelosi’s nature to cower or She told Ocasio-Cortez that while she walking tour, but it’s a cold day, and she knows what her critics say about her: that effective, I wouldn’t be a target,” she says, power still rankles. grovel. She will be who she is—liberal, loved Crowley, she had always wanted detests the cold.) A few blocks over, there she’s too old, too “toxic,” too polarizing; working on her ice cream as leftover It seems to enrage people that Pelosi privileged, unpopular—and let the chips to see more young, progressive women are hipster restaurants and lofts, but in that after three decades in Congress and Christmas songs play in the background. feels entitled to things: money, power, fall where they may. To some Democrats, in Congress, according to a person with this part of town, the corners still feature 15 years leading her party’s caucus, she The only part that bothers her, she says, is respect. Of course it does—a woman Pelosi’s is an attitude of unconscionable direct knowledge of the conversation. traditional pasta houses. has had her turn and needs to get out of when women who are thinking of running is always held responsible for her selfishness: she’s willing to damage “There’s a lot to do,” Pelosi told her. D’Alesandro wore a bow tie and straw the way. But there’s a reason she sticks for office tell her they couldn’t withstand reputation. Clinton, in her years running her party to hold on to the position “Thank you for your courage to run. This boater and helmed an old-school urban around. Had Hillary Clinton won the the abuse. “I say, ‘Forget what they’re for President, was asked over and over she believes she deserves. The story of is not for the faint of heart.” It was typ- Democratic machine, with party bosses 2016 election, she says, “we’d have a doing to me, because you won’t be that again some version of the question, Nancy Pelosi is, inevitably, the story of ical Pelosi—a compliment, wrapped in pledging the loyalty of their tribes: the woman at the head of the table.” When much of a target. But you will be a target, Why do you think people don’t like what people think of her. The way she is an invitation to join the team, with just Italians, the Irish, the Jews, the blacks. that didn’t happen, Pelosi realized that because this is about power. And if you you? (Despite not being on any ballot, recognized and remembered, the way she a hint of potential consequences. And it His politics were about favor-trading without her, there might not be a woman look like you’re making headway they will Clinton, too, figures prominently in the is held to account. And so Pelosi doesn’t reflected a political education that, for Pe- and patronage, not grand ideological de- in the room at all. come after you. And it won’t be a pretty Republicans’ fall campaign strategy.) A have the luxury of not caring about what losi, began a lifetime ago. signs. (His aspirations to become gov- Pelosi is one of the most sight.’” powerful woman is always defined less people think of her: it’s the question The youngest of seven children and ernor were thwarted by a corruption consequential political figures of her The attacks on Pelosi are particu- by what she has done than by how she on which her future, and the future of the only girl, Pelosi grew up like royalty. scandal involving parking-garage con- generation. It was her creativity, stamina larly ironic in this political moment. makes people feel. American politics, depends. Her father Thomas D’Alesandro Jr. was a struction, according to a 1954 TIME re- and willpower that drove the defining Since Donald Trump’s election, Ameri- Pelosi isn’t humble. Many women, she member of Congress when she was born, port.) Pelosi has a strong sense of ethnic Democratic accomplishments of the past can women have poured into the streets, thinks, are afraid to show pride and need The morning afTer the biggest in 1940, and the mayor of Baltimore by the identity—she credits her Italian heritage decade, from universal access to health signed up to run for office in record to see an example of confidence. Besides, primary upset of 2018, Pelosi placed a time she was 7. When young Nancy wasn’t for her stamina—and as a leader she ap- coverage to saving the U.S. economy making sure you get your due isn’t call to Ocasio-Cortez. The 28-year-old being ferried to a Catholic girls’ school, proaches the factions of the Democrats in from collapse, from reforming Wall something you can delegate. One former socialist from the Bronx had predicated she was attending her father’s ceremonial a similar party-boss style. As her friend Street to allowing gay people to serve Pelosi aide told me everything she does is her campaign against the House’s fourth events or helping him get out the vote. Her the late Congressman John Murtha used openly in the military. Her Republican ‘IF I WEREN’T rooted in this combination of obligation most powerful Democrat on getting rid of father’s ancestors had immigrated from to say, “Don’t think she’s from San Fran- successors’ ineptitude has thrown her and entitlement: the sense that someone the old, out-of-touch party establishment, Genoa, Venice and Abruzzo, her mother’s cisco. She’s from Baltimore.” skills into sharp relief. It’s not a stretch EFFECTIVE, ought to do something, and she is the and pundits were speculating about the from the southern Italian city of Campo- Pelosi’s family made her a Democrat, to say Pelosi is one of very few legislators only one who can do it. Pelosi seems to GILLIAN LAUB FOR TIME implications for other longtime leaders. basso. The family lived in a three-story but it was the 1960s that made her a in Washington who actually know what feel no need to apologize for her status in Sitting on a goldenrod-colored sofa in brick row house in the heart of Little Italy, liberal. While at Trinity College, a Catholic they’re doing. I WOULDN’T the way women are expected to and men her airy office on the second floor of the a blue collar community near Baltimore’s women’s school in D.C. now known But few people talk about her in those rarely are. Perhaps the assertion of ego by Capitol, Pelosi picked up the phone and industrial waterfront. The house appears as Trinity Washington University, she terms.