Pelosi is headed for bigger things [View All]

The Daily Breeze

Monday, December 05, 2005

Pelosi is headed for bigger things

I'm really no clairvoyant. But come November, San Francisco's Nancy Pelosi will become the first woman House speaker of all time.
By Lionel Van Deerlin

I'm really no clairvoyant. For one of a wrongheaded 420 House members who voted for Lyndon Johnson's Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and war in Vietnam, it was easy to guess our mission in Mesopotamia would make no more sense some 40 years later. And as for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, I think any reasonably perceptive Californian could detect he was setting himself up for a fall with his decision to call for a special election.

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Conceivably, a lot could happen to shake things up in the next 11 months. But don't sweat it. A November turnover seems destined no matter what. Even if our troops are out of Iraq by then. Even if the Dow soars to Clinton administration levels, the price of gas dips to where it was when Bush took over, and even if us oldsters find it possible to understand the options this bunch offers us on pharmaceuticals.

I realize the impending political turnaround will not thrill some of my best friends. But the change is already under way. During the approximately 60 years since opinion polling became statistically reliable, never once has a party retained its majorities when so statistically out of favor as the Republicans in Washington have made themselves today.

Prospective voters are revealing lots more than their unhappiness with Bush. By an 8 percent margin, pollsters have learned they intend supporting Democratic nominees for Congress.

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Lionel Van Deerlin, a former congressman, is a contributing writer for The San Diego Union-Tribune and Copley News Service.


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