The Pelosi Prelude?

By being elected Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi has become another symbol of the freedom and equality that women have achieved over the last forty years. That's great! But there's a serious wrinkle in her story. Pelosi won because she's a political work horse--a top fund-raiser, demanding task-master, and tough arm-twister when it comes to keeping the Democrats in line. Pelosi has lots of friends, but she also brags about getting even with her enemies. The last six years has seen the most poisonous partisanship since the Civil War and Nancy Pelosi has thrived amidst all the bitterness and contention. In other words, Pelosi got to be an important symbol because she's so good at being a hack.

The next big question is the nature of the next big breakthrough. Hillary Clinton is going to be running for President in the same manner that Pelosi ran for Speaker. Like Pelosi, Hillary is Obviously, Hillary is more comfortable as an inside worker than a charismatic or visionary. But does Hillary get to be the ultimate symbol of progress for women by being a policy, fundraising, and campaign grinder? In fact, the unpopularity of the war is likely to make either Hillary or Barack Obama the next President and much of the question between them will be whether the American people want an insider "work horse" like Hillary or a visionary "show horse" like Obama. Will the next symbolic breakthrough be the woman who has been tested in the white heat of Whitewater, Monica, and right-wing hate campaigns or the black man who promises an alternative to the current viciousness?

My money's on Hillary. It's not like the right-wing is going to go away after 2008 and I believe that we're still going to need the kind of bare-knuckled fighter that Hillary can be.

Either way, Nancy Pelosi is a prelude to the next big thing.