Showing posts with label Nancy Pelosi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nancy Pelosi. Show all posts

Monday, June 27, 2011

Speaker Emerita: Nancy's iPhone

Washington Post has a new profile on Nancy Pelosi's difficult transition back to Minority Leader and ambitions to win back the Speakership. It's basically just an update about a political personality that we already know well. And if the anecdotes about Pelosi's storied personal touch in politicking and her aggressive defense of her record sound familiar, it's because they're vintage Pelosi. The only real news is buried at the end of the story: Pelosi got an iPhone and plays Angry Birds. That, and DCCC fundraising completely dried up during the scandal over Anthony Weiner's predilections for hot, raunchy, and gratuitously political cybersex.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Weinergate

House Minority Leader (our Speaker Emerita) Nancy Pelosi has called for a formal ethics investigation into Anthony "Aptly Named" Weiner's after he owned up to the tweet depicting his throbbing hard penis . Ethics panel investigations have traditionally been used to buy time for embattled members in hopes that a serious scandal blows over by the time the committee issues its report. However, for Weenie's own floor leader to fan the flames at such a difficult moment really ramps up the pressure for him to resign immediately, and suggests the Democratic leadership considers it cleaner to nip this scandal at the bud.

The Weiner story has legs, and the Dem leadership is giving him a little nudge in front of a barreling bus.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Speaker Emerita: Nancy's Fashions

Nothing gets my juices flowing like poring over photo galleries of Nancy Pelosi's stylish "powersuits." I just love it when women pull off a classy feminine flair in their business suits, and no one color coordinates while whipping votes and twisting arms quite like Nancy. The Daily Beast and the New York Times have both done some clever coverage on how the Speaker Emerita balances feminine and powerful (the secret, they both agree, is apparently Tahitian pearls). The NYT piece has a great photo of Nancy draping a statement red shawl over a matching red skirt suit.

Charles Dharapak / Associated Press

While she looks effortless in eye-catching red, Nancy is also known to wear purples for important ceremonial occasions - purple being a gimmicky bipartisan blend of Republican red and Democratic blue - as she did at her 2007 swearing in as the first woman speaker in history.

Nancy shatters the "marble ceiling" in a burgundy purple skirt suit.

...and that time she led a procession to the Capitol ahead of the historic health care reform vote in the House. (Disclaimer: there was nothing bipartisan about the health care reform vote, which garnered exactly 0 Republican "ayes" and involved a controversial procedure called reconciliation designed to amend the bill to the House's liking while bypassing a Senate filibuster). Nancy in a lilac skirt suit and matching pumps moments before the final 2010 health care vote:

Lauren Victoria Burke / AP Photo

The Daily Beast compares this outfit to a lavender runway look in the Philip Lim show that same year.

Stan Honda / Getty Images

I prefer this pairing with Nancy looking cosy in camel. I myself have been looking for a good camel jacket for months as well! (LOLOL Harry Reid, what r u doing in this photo? In a matching camel coat to outshine Nancy no less! Opposite Harry Reid, a model in Alexander Wang's Fall 2010 show)

Alex Wong / Getty Images; Slaven Vlasic / Getty Images

And my favorite high-fashion analogy from the Daily Beast: "'Anna [Wintour] is basically the Nancy Pelosi of fashion' [...] Pelosi, for her fearsome authority and consistent style, could likewise be called the Anna Wintour of Congress." That, and they both wear their hair in a fashionable bob.


Associated Press

I also liked Nancy's autumn green outfit with basket weave detailing at last year's State of the Union address. Since we're doing her style in terms of couture, I'm gonna say that the weave detail looks like the intrecciato technique used in Bottega Veneta bags.

Getty Images


Friday, May 13, 2011

Speaker Emerita: Nancy's Sweets

I just had to point out that Nancy Pelosi's Twitter profile reads: "Democratic Leader, focused on strengthening America's middle class and creating jobs; mother, grandmother, dark chocolate connoisseur."

Technically she's the Democratic Leader, but we refer to her as the Speaker Emerita here, since this is also technically correct and some of us would rather not think about the Republican crybaby who currently wields the speaker's gavel. I also love that Nancy deemed her love of dark chocolate important enough to include in her profile given the character constraints imposed by Twitter. Did you know that she eats entire pints of chocolate ice cream for breakfast?

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Speaker Emerita

I worked as a research analyst for a few months in 2010. On my first day, all the new RA's were introduced to the permanent staff and we played an ice breaker. We each said our names, the school we went to, a wild animal we would domesticate, what we would name it, and why. When came to my turn, I said, "I'd get a cougar and I'd name her Nancy Pelosi."

I said it to break the ice, but I only half intended it as a joke. I have a very complex adulation for Nancy, but she's a complex intersection of some of my favorite things. Maybe it's because I'm a gay guy, and it is a truth universally acknowledged that gay men are attracted to powerful women. Maybe it's that she's a Californian, or that she's the Congresswoman for my beloved gaysian San Francisco. Or maybe it's because Nancy Pelosi is single most effective, unwavering champion for liberal causes in national politics since I became politically conscious.

It's not just that I want to differentiate myself by worshipping at the altar of someone other than the president. I admire President Obama, but when the White House wanted to abandon comprehensive health care reform in favor of a piecemeal approach after RILF Scott Brown's election to the Senate, it was Nancy who famously rejected the White House capitulation and declared, "You go through the gate. If the gate's closed, you go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we'll pole-vault in. If that doesn't work, we'll parachute in. But we are going to get health care reform passed for the American people."

via the Economist

Along with Russ Feingold, Nancy's speakership was the biggest casualty to liberals in the 2010 midterm elections and it's a travesty. I'll never forget that November day when Democrats took back Congress just a few years ago in the 2006 midterms. Bush and the Republicans had been running around unfettered for 6 years - really as long as I knew anything about politics - when Nancy Pelosi appeared on television to declare that "Democrats are ready to lead." It was the first time I remembered a big electoral victory, and the speech was music to my ears. And boy did she give Bush a hard time for the remainder of his presidency. Nowadays, John Boehner calls the shots in the House, but I for one will keep trumpeting the awesomeness of the first woman Speaker of the House until she gets that gavel back!

via the Economist