Nancy Pelosi Building Her Own Coffin

Nancy Pelosi is a goner. When the Democrats retake the House, she will not be elected Speaker, and it’s her own doing, because she has alienated members from both the right and left wings of the party.

Michael Tomasky had a piece this morning (see the Open Thread) about the cluelessness of the Democratic establishment, with Pelosi as the centerpiece based on her scolding of Maxine Waters in a feeble attempt to blunt Republican criticism.

She’s at it again today, assuring voters that Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez’s victory over one of her lieutenants does NOT mean socialism is ascendant in the party. “It’s ascendant in that district perhaps! But I don’t accept any characterization of our party presented by the Republicans,” she told CBS. “So let me reject that right now.”

Jesus H. Christ on a commercial break, STOP TALKING ABOUT WHAT REPUBLICANS SAY! Republicans never respond to Democratic talking points. Given the microphone they attack Democrats, no matter what the question was. Acknowledging the GOP framing reinforces the GOP framing. How fucking hard is that to understand? Apparently the old pol can’t learn this new trick.

Ironically, the biggest threat to her leadership won’t be from caucus members on her left but from the purple-dog contingent led by Conor Lamb and his ilk. Those are the kinds of people who will win the swing districts that give Democrats whatever majority they gain, and they don’t want to be saddled with her alleged liberalism let alone that of leftists like Ocasio-Cortez. And by throwing AOC under the bus, she’ll lose the leftists, too.

Which is why I think she’s doomed.