Hats Off To Wonkette’s 2022 Legislative Badass, Nancy Pelosi!

Sometimes the dialogue around the Wonkette Sekrit ChatCave goes like this:

Dok: I know we gave Legislative Hero/Badass to the J6 Committee last year, but I think I’ll give it to them again because they actually DID the thing this year

Rebecca: I would rather have Nancy tho dok, unless you feel strongly!

Dok: As Mo Udall used to say, “Well, those’re my views. And if you don’t like ’em … I’ll change ’em!”

Rebecca: lololol

Rebecca: also Mo Udall had a fake eye. Because when I was an eight year old girl with a fake eye my parents would be like YOU”RE LIKE MO UDALL

Dok: OMG I love your parents … And Karen Bass!

Rebecca: I LOVE KAREN BASS!

And so that’s how we make executive decisions around here: with integrity and also I had already said earlier it would kind of have to be either Nancy Pelosi or the January 6 committee, both of whom have done incredible service to the US America, like such as. The House January 6 Select Committee managed to make televised hearings riveting again, and Pelosi capped off a career of public service as the leader of Democrats in the House since 2003, either as Speaker or as minority leader. Even though she’s stepping down from House leadership, Pelosi will remain in the House, representing her San Francisco district and probably being available to incoming Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) if he needs advice on anything.

Over the years, people have said a lot of really dumb things about Pelosi, from weirdly blaming her for there being no public option in Obamacare (that was the US Senate, actually, and Joe Lieberman and Max Baucus) to downright lying about her comments about Obamacare in 2010. Reality: She said that once the bill was passed and Americans found out what was in it, they’d like it. But hey, edit the first part of the clip, and it could be presented to make it seem like the bill’s contents were secret, and it would have to be passed before anyone found out what was in it. Or with repetition, maybe Pelosi herself didn’t even know what was in it, haw haw!

Nancy Pelosi is already guaranteed a place in history as the most effective House speaker ever. She got Democrats — famous for the old Will Rogers joke about not being an organized political party — to settle differences and pass stuff. And in the time she led House Democrats, Republicans turned into the ungovernable party, in part because they increasingly lost interest in getting things accomplished at all. In the time Pelosi has led House Democrats, the Republicans have chewed up and spit out Denny Hastert, who resigned when Pelosi became speaker in 2007, John Boehner, who retired and was replaced — very reluctantly — by Paul Ryan, and then when Pelosi became speaker again in 2019, Kevin McCarthy. McCarthy may or may not become speaker next week.

All that time, Pelosi has been doing the job and doing it well — well enough that every Republican candidate for the House pretends they’re running against her, and probably some Senate candidates, too. That demonization of Pelosi led an unhinged conspiracy fan to try to murder her husband Paul in October, but only because the speaker herself, his intended assassination target, was in Washington at the time. Republicans graciously made jokes about the attack, because that’s America in 2022.

Through it all, Pelosi has been fiercely focused on doing the work, from passing Obamacare to closing out her tenure as speaker with the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act, ensuring that even if the Supreme Court undoes the Obergefell decision, all marriages in America will be treated equally under the law.

So Madam Speaker, please enjoy your new role as an ordinary member of Congress, and your title as Representative Pelosi. You’re the standard by which all future speakers of the House will be measured — and it’s not likely any will come close for a long, long time.

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