Nancy Pelosi Is Ready to Be Voice of the Majority

The New York Times
By KATE ZERNIKE

WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 — As Representative Nancy Pelosi faced the cameras Wednesday morning, after the Democrats had taken a majority in the House and put her on the brink of becoming the first female speaker, she spoke so softly at first that some reporters insisted they could not hear her.

“I’m not in charge of the technical arrangements,” Ms. Pelosi said quietly, fiddling with the microphone.

Then suddenly, she was commanding: “But I could use my mother-of-five voice!”

It is a line Ms. Pelosi uses often, and a voice she may have to rely on frequently as she tries to ensure that the new Democratic majority lasts more than two years.

As speaker, she would be second in line to the presidency — the closest a woman in elective office has come to the White House. And while she has been a leader in Congress for years, and the target of Republican attacks, many Americans still do not know who she is. Her new job places her on a more visible stage, with much greater stakes.

Ms. Pelosi, 66, who has been a San Francisco congresswoman for 20 years, became minority leader and then guided her caucus to victory by enforcing remarkable party discipline. She curbed the demands of those who share her often-caricatured liberal values, while making a place for the party’s conservatives, for whom San Francisco is sometimes as distant as the moon.

Read more on the Speaker - Elect at the New York Times.com