In the aftermath of a quartet of special election losses by Democratic candidates earlier this year, a group of — mostly — younger members of Congress insisted that it was time for Nancy Pelosi to step down as leader of their party in the House.
It’s a call Pelosi has grown used to since the 2010 election when she and her fellow Democrats lost control of the House in an anti-Obama wave. And one that she’s been ignoring for just as long, knowing that her position as House Democratic leader is hers until she decides she doesn’t want it anymore.
A headline Sunday night in the Washington Post shows why. “Nancy Pelosi’s fundraising breaks $25 million for 2017,” it read.
In the story, Pelosi’s political team details that almost all of that haul went to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the arm of the party tasked with winning back the House in 2018. That $25.9 million is $10 million more than Pelosi raised for the DCCC in 2015 — and far more than any other House Democrat could even dream of raising.
The simple fact is that without Pelosi, Democrats would be at a massive disadvantage financially. There is no one in the leadership structure under Pelosi who could step in and raise anything even close to what she is collecting for the party. The DCCC raised just shy of $60 million between January 1 and June 30, meaning that Pelosi raised roughly 40% of all of the money for the committee so far this year.
Without that money, Democrats would be heavily outgunned by Republicans on the TV airwaves — making it that much harder for the party to win back the House next fall.
Pelosi knows all of that. And she knows that the shrunken Democratic caucus — in the wake of major losses in 2010 and 2014 — is more liberal than it was prior to those elections and, therefore, even friendlier to her.
All of which means that people can complain all they want but no one is even close to in position to bring Pelosi down. Not now and, even if Democrats don’t win the House back in 2018, not then either.
That fact is why, in an interview with Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday” over the weekend, Pelosi was oozing confidence.
“Self-promotion is a terrible thing, but somebody has got to do it,” she told Wallace before noting that she is a “master legislator” who knows “the budget to the nth degree” and knows “the motivation of the people.” Concluded Pelosi: “So, I feel very confident about the support I have in my caucus.”
She’s right. Pelosi is as close to untouchable as you will find in politics. Democrats not happy with her leadership have to come to terms with the fact that they aren’t going to ever knock her out of her job. Pelosi will leave on her own terms, when she’s good and ready.
