Will Pelosi be pushed out if House Dems dont get back over 200?

[Zioneer]

She'll most likely voluntarily retire from leadership after this cycle IMO.

Good; she hasn't really been all that effective since she lost majority power.

[Mr.Phips]

Pelosi will step down if we don't take back the house this year. I really hope we don't replace her with Hoyer. He is more than useless. Van Hollen or Becerra would be great.

Hoyer is like 73 and will probably retire soon himself and be replaced by a black Democrat in his district. 

[Marokai Backbeat]

Xavier Becerra would be an awesome House leader.

[tmthforu94]

Wasserman-Shultz is my top choice. Alan Grayson is another good one, should he win this year.

[RodPresident]

If Pelosi announces her retirement now, she would help Democrats a lot in plans of retaking House!

[Zioneer]

If Pelosi announces her retirement now, she would help Democrats a lot in plans of retaking House!

It's true; most of the anti-Matheson ads in my state basically say something along the lines of "don't vote for Matheson, he'll be a vote for Pelosi the California socialist aaaaagh".

[RogueBeaver]

Becerra or Israel seem the frontrunners but I doubt an ex-Blue Dog like Israel would get it.

Pelosi: She has much better caucus discipline than Boehner, so despite intensely disliking her she gets props from me for caucus management.

Agreed with Tmth that DWS would be a good choice... for the GOP.

[Phony Moderate]

Barney Frank would make an 'interesting' leader, but he's retiring obviously.

[Bacon King]

Pelosi: She has much better caucus discipline than Boehner, so despite intensely disliking her she gets props from me for caucus management.

Agreed; for all the roadblocks the Senate caused in 2009-2010, Pelosi demonstrated some incredibly impressive organizational efforts in corralling just enough of the House's Blue Dogs to pass Health Care Reform, Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal, Dodd-Frank, Cap and Trade, DISCLOSE Act, etc, all with very narrow margins. If you look at the roll calls, the most impressive thing is the way she had the conservative Democrats trade off, so they all passed with as few votes as possible with every Blue Dog being able to tell their constituents they opposed Pelosi on at least several of the major pieces of the Democratic agenda.

[Torie]

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Yes, but that has been done by both parties since rocks cooled. But it didn't obtain with Obamacare, where there were no votes to spare. Altmire said Pelosi beat him up mercilessly. Pelosi needed more bodies than volunteered  to walk the plank.

[Bacon King]

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Yes, but that has been done by both parties since rocks cooled. But it didn't obtain with Obamacare, where there were no votes to spare. Altmire said Pelosi beat him up mercilessly. Pelosi needed more bodies than volunteered  to walk the plank.

It did work with Obamacare, though! That's exactly what I'm talking about- it must have been an insane organizational effort to successfully pull this vote off as the leader of the majority party. Figure out the 15% of the 258-member caucus who can't or won't vote for the bill (whether it's ideological reasons or just re-election concerns) while still managing to persuade, cajole, and rally your party so you still have a single vote to spare. That's pretty damn impressive, IMO.

[Torie]

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Yes, but that has been done by both parties since rocks cooled. But it didn't obtain with Obamacare, where there were no votes to spare. Altmire said Pelosi beat him up mercilessly. Pelosi needed more bodies than volunteered  to walk the plank.

It did work with Obamacare, though! That's exactly what I'm talking about- it must have been an insane organizational effort to successfully pull this vote off as the leader of the majority party. Figure out the 15% of the 258-member caucus who can't or won't vote for the bill (whether it's ideological reasons or just re-election concerns) while still managing to persuade, cajole, and rally your party so you still have a single vote to spare. That's pretty damn impressive, IMO.

Yes, it worked. It was a sanguinary work out however. It will become more sanguinary when the system collapses as folks drop insurance and go for paying the "tax" that they really don't have to pay since you can sign up for insurance after become a quad.

[freepcrusher]

Pelosi is probably the best we can do for now. She's very much like Phillip Burton (who held her seat before her) and she did a good job of getting legislation passed. I think Pelosi should remain as minority leader until she retires, which will probably be in a few cycles anyways. The best replacement is probably Becerra.

[rbt48]

199 or less; she steps down.  Make that 205 or less.  It is not like being a Senate Minority Leader where you can lead filibusters. 

I'd love for DWS to take it.  Might be a smart move for Dems with large numbers of Israeli's perhaps headed this way.  It might blunt their potential move to the GOP camp.

[Marokai Backbeat]

As BK has already shown, Pelosi is hated by the Right because she's so goddamn efficient and effective at what she does in the House. She was, with just 4 years, easily the best Speaker of the House in decades. She was objectively better at being Speaker than Beohner, regardless of what you think of her politics. But, she is getting up there in years and is probably tired of dealing with all the BS, and House Democrats could definitely use a new face. Becerra would be great, being a good Progressive, fairly personally nice, experienced and up there in the House leadership chain, + being hispanic, which is just good politics.

[morgieb]

If Pelosi is making right-wingers hate her then she's doing a good job, IMO.

My only worry is if the speaker is off-putting to independents. If we're in opposition we should probably elect someone with popular appeal.

[Miles]

Politico was out with an article today saying that Hoyer would be next if Pelosi steps down.