Many Conservative leaders have hated Nancy Pelosi since at least 2006. They hated her for three primary reasons:
1. She understood how Congressional politics work.
2. She understood the importance of political techniques like polling, messaging and getting input from constituents.
3. She knew how to say “No”.
Since 2006, the Vast Right Wing network of Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and various other Conservative outlets have regularly beat the “We Hate Nancy Pelosi” drum. If Nancy Pelosi had been a weak and ineffective leader, they would have instead said, “Oh, Nancy Pelosi? She is a Democrat we can work with!”. Conservative leaders will always badmouth any Democrat who is not a doormat, and the tougher the Democrat is, the more Conservatives will get their hate on. Just ask Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, or Barack Obama.
So this election season, when it looked like there was a good chance that the Democrats would take the House back, the Republicans went after Nancy Pelosi in a big way. They made a bunch of commercials specifically tying candidates to Nancy Pelosi. They made sure that Conservative shows and websites tied candidates to “bad” Nancy Pelosi. It was “Nancy Pelosi is bad”, and “Candidate A is just like Nancy Pelosi”.
This led to a lot of Fox News watchers asking Democratic candidates if they supported Nancy Pelosi, which led to a lot of Democratic candidates throwing her under the bus rather than doing the slightly more difficult task of defending her. I do not think Nancy Pelosi minded that they did too much, because she cares so much about Democrats winning. In fact, Nancy Pelosi cares so much about her party that if she thought she needed to step down in order for her party to have a majority, I think she would do it in a heartbeat. But do not be mislead, of the Democratic House Speakers in the past 50 years, she is one of the best, by far, and the difference between a mediocre Speaker and a great one is the difference between huge legislation like Obamacare being passed or huge legislation ending up in the dustbin.
Congressional politics is complex even if you are just a freshman Congressperson who is not even on an important committee. When one has to deal with one’s own party Congresspeople, opposition party Congresspeople, party leaders, opposition party leaders, administration officials, PAC leaders, special interest groups, and ordinary constituents in addition to the normal duties one needs to do to represent one’s own district, the task is mountainous.
It is challenging to be a mildly adequate Party Leader. To be a great one requires Herculean stamina. Great party leaders do not come in Cracker Jacks boxes. Instead of making so much noise about not being willing to vote for Nancy Pelosi by showing up on MSNBC or CNN, Congressional Democrats should figure out who they have that will do a better job. Until then, until each of them has someone in mind who they are sure will be better than former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, they should really consider staying off of the news talk circuit, because right now they are ticking off a whole lot of Democrats, as in virtually every Democrat I know.