Tales from the Trail

Nancy Pelosi — the first woman Speaker of the House — is soon to become the first woman ex-Speaker of the House.

But the trouncing of  House Democrats in Tuesday’s elections, which flipped control of that chamber to Republicans, has not deterred Pelosi from wanting to hang onto the leadership reins.

She announced on Twitter and in a letter to her colleagues that she will run for House Minority Leader in the new Congress. It’s a position she held before becoming House Speaker — third in line to the presidency – in 2007.

And back then it was also a first. Pelosi became the first woman to lead a major party in the House when she was chosen as minority leader to replace Dick Gephardt, who stepped down after disappointing results in the 2002 midterms.

Before she made her intention public, some members of her caucus were quite publicly saying they wanted somebody different in the minority leader chair.

For instance, Congressman Dan Boren of Oklahoma released a statement this morning that said: “I cannot in good conscience support Nancy Pelosi as Leader. I intend to support a more conservative Democrat alternative.”

Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, tweets “Nancy Pelosi was called most powerful Speaker since Sam Rayburn. Now she wants to imitate Rayburn–stay as Min Ldr after losing top post.”

And, Sabato notes: “Blue Dogs slaughtered on TU. Too few left to threaten Pelosi. Only question: Do D caucus liberals want Pelosi or someone else?”

That is going to be the question when House Democrats go behind closed doors and decide who they want leading the newly elected minority…

Photo credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst (Pelosi waves on election night)