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Pelosi ready for House helm, battle over issues

Pelosi is the first woman in American history to lead a political party in Congress. As House Democratic leader, Pelosi is one of the loudest opposition voices against the White House, whether opposing its domestic agenda or the war in Iraq. Pelosi hails from a family of politicos; both her father and brother were mayors of Baltimore. She built her base representing San Francisco in the House of Representatives starting in 1987. Pelosi is also a senior member of the important House Appropriations Committee and for ten years has sat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In June, Pelosi stepped up her campaign against the Iraq war, saying, "This war in Iraq is a grotesque mistake; it is not making America safer."

Speaking at the Capitol on Wednesday, Pelosi told reporters that Tuesday's Democratic landslide in the House elections was indicative of Americans desiring a "new direction," including a return to bipartisan civility and fairness in the nation's economy.

"But nowhere was the call for new direction more clear from the American people than in the war in Iraq. This is something that we must work on together with the president. We know that 'stay the course' is not working," she said.

Pelosi hasn't cowered from battles on her way to the top, whether it's President Bush lambasting her on tax cuts or the GOP calling her a "latte liberal" and using the prospect of her speakership as a scare tactic to sway voters.

"You go into the ring, you have to be ready to take your hits, and that's part of it," she said.

But Pelosi, 66, isn't afraid to dish out her own jabs, and said that things will be different with Democrats in power -- and with the House gavel in a woman's hands for the first time in the chamber's 217 years.

She has shot back at Bush, calling him everything from "incompetent" to "in denial and dangerous." She also has repeatedly threatened that once the Democrats take the House helm, "the president will have to have a different attitude now that he won't have a rubber-stamp Congress."

So what will be on the agenda come January? Pelosi has said that in the first 100 hours of her speakership she will push for action implementing all 9/11 Commission recommendations on national security, raising the minimum wage to $7.25. eliminating corporate subsidies for oil companies, allowing the government to negotiate Medicare drug prices, imposing new restrictions on lobbyists, cutting interest rates on college loans and supporting embryonic stem-cell research.

As for Iraq, Pelosi and the Democrats have yet to explicitly outline their plan for U.S. involvement in the region, but unlike many of her counterparts, Pelosi voted against authorizing the war.

And what about the persnickety allegation that she will skipper tax hikes through the House? Sure she will, said the shoo-in speaker.

"We will revisit the tax cuts at the high end in order to give tax cuts to the middle class," she said.

Pelosi can't take too much credit for her party's triumph. On top of an unpopular president and war, Republicans, in the months before midterms, fell victim to a variety of scandals that undoubtedly played a role in giving the Democrats back the House they lost in 1994.

Republican Rep. Tom DeLay was indicted on state money-laundering charges in Texas (he has denied wrongdoing); Republican Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio resigned his seat last week after pleading guilty in an influence-peddling investigation; and Republican Rep. Mark Foley of Florida resigned in September after his sexually explicit Internet messages to teen congressional pages surfaced.

"Maybe it takes a woman to clean house," said Pelosi, a mother of five. Asked if her remark was deliberately sexist, she replied, "It is. Because the fact is a woman represents what's new, because it's never happened before."