Turmoil...

2007

The effort by a number of House Democrats to block Rep. Nancy Pelosi from resuming the speakership that she was forced to relinquish after the 2010 election, bears a resemblance to the acceptance, by some Americans, of the anti-Hillary Clinton narrative peddled on social media by Russian trolls in 2016. In the case of Pelosi, the hostile power that launched the demonization of the Democratic leader was the Republican Party.

GOP campaign organizations dug a rabbit hole that some Democrats eagerly dived into. These Democratic back-benchers in the House who have been mounting a challenge to Pelosi have bought into this grotesque GOP narrative on her and it has soured the growing Democratic majority that has been unfolding since November 6.

Sadly, a number of newly-elected Democratic members also promised to toss Pelosi over the side and now have to confront the fact that there is no plausible candidate to replace her. They are in the untenable position of trying to beat somebody with nobody, and worse, making it their first order of business.

The campaign against Pelosi is a kind of Children’s Crusade whose symbolic leader is perhaps the least-experienced member of the 2018 Democratic cohort.