Nancy Pelosi Is Awesome, Continued

Now, of course, there's no guarantee that this will happen, but Nancy Pelosi's 3 years, 363 days of service as Speaker of the House put her 18th all-time, two measly days behind Joseph Martin, the Massachusetts foil and of and gavel-swapper with Texan Sam Rayburn. Supposing the Democrats take back the House next fall (which I admit is a reasonably big "if"), there's every reason to expect Pelosi to add two years to her record, which would put her at 5 years, 363 days. That would be seventh all-time. Behind the following people: Sam Rayburn, who is never ever going to lose his #1 spot, Tip O'Neill, John McCormack, Dennis Hastert, Champ Clark, and some guy named Henry Clay. If she could get another four years somehow, without losing another four anomalous days, she'd move ahead of Hastert into fourth all-time, behind only Rayburn, O'Neill, and McCormack. Obviously, as I said, there's no way to know if that will happen, but I bet you anything that John Boehner is never going to see his name very high on this list.

Nancy Pelosi, MVP

She gets a lot of flack, obviously, for being wildly unpopular and for having had her caucus suffer a rather crushing defeat last year. But I still think that Nanci Pelosi is the person who, starting in 2007, has done the most to advance the progressive agenda. Apparently she was instrumental in convincing Obama to hit the Republicans as hard as he did in his speech on Wednesday, and she was instrumental in getting all of no Democrats to vote for Paul Ryan's budget. She's one hell of a whip, and she's easily the most powerful person in America who is a true, committed, liberal (as opposed to something more center-left). And when we take back the House next November, I look forward to seeing her become Speaker once again.