It’s been a long time since I have written a diary (is it still called that or are these blog entries now :) ) But this caught my attention and I just had to share
Politico has written a behind the scenes view of Pelosi holding the caucus together.
''She’s not one to bluff': How Pelosi won the shutdown battle
As usual, a bunch of blue dogs were trying to undermine her, but she held fast. And a bunch of freshman learned that DC doesn’t work like Fox News where scare tactics require an immediate response.
She earned a ton of trust by going into battle with the troops and coming out unscathed. Blue Dogs are effectively cut off in the short term and Freshman now have no reason to doubt her leadership. An amazing turn and the strongest leadership debut on either side of the Capitol in a longtime.
A few key quotes:
Yet it wasn't easy for her. Pelosi worked behind the scenes to keep her caucus in line — even as a small faction of her own members grew skittish about the shutdown’s impacts on constituents and privately urged her to counter a recent Trump compromise with an offer of her own.
Pelosi’s reply? Don’t give an inch and stay together, she told nervous Democrats as recently as this week. If we counter-offer Trump on the wall, we lose, Pelosi insisted. And we’re winning.
And there is no doubt this was a leadership leak, naming names of those who weren’t on the team.
Yet Trump’s fold came at just the right time for Pelosi, who presides over a caucus filled with anxious centrists and freshmen desperate for any signs of progress that the stalemate — the longest shutdown in U.S. history — was ending. While a vast majority of her members supporter her strategy through and through, several dozen started feeling restless.
Many Democratic lawmakers were getting an earful from constituents back home who were ready to see the shutdown end, no matter who was to blame for starting it. And some members were upset that leadership canceled a scheduled recess this week, forcing them to be in Washington while postponing town halls and other events back in their districts.
During several meetings of the more pragmatic-minded New Democrats Coalition, lawmakers expressed exasperation that the Pelosi-favored hashtag “#TrumpShutdown” wasn’t enough to shield them from angry constituents back home. Other members, like freshman Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, complained that the messaging strategy Pelosi had laid out may work for solid blue districts but wouldn’t hold water in her Republican-populated stronghold.
Oh, Dems also learned which members strategic advice to summarily ignore in the future...
Rep. Kurt Schrader, a centrist Blue Dog from Oregon, publicly expressed the private fears of several rank-and-file Democrats earlier this week — that his party lost the messaging war over the weekend by flatly turning Trump down. Being seen as refusing to negotiate, no matter how unrealistic Trump’s offer was, “is not a good strategy,” Schrader said.
Other members tried to nudge Pelosi to counter Trump by gathering signatures for letters — one from the Blue Dogs and another led by several dozen Democratic freshmen — urging the California Democrat and other congressional leaders to come together and find a resolution to the deadlock.
But Speaker Pelosi wasn’t having it, been there, done that.
“Understand, there is a plan. It is working for us,” Pelosi told the caucus, recounting how she and other Democrats beat back then-President George W. Bush’s efforts to privatize social security in 2005 by staying unified and sticking to a simple message, much like they were doing now. Democrats did the same when Republicans shutdown the government in 2013 in a bid to defund Obamacare, she said. They didn’t counter Republicans then, Pelosi noted —and ultimately, they won.
“So, for week-in and week-out, we had to say to our group, ‘Stick with the plan,'” Pelosi said, according to a source in the room. “And so, what we are saying is, ‘Open up government. And then we can discuss.'”
“She said the best thing to do is stand your ground and not to propose our own solution,” said one Democratic aide familiar with Pelosi’s message. “She was saying, ‘You have to let them screw the pooch on this to look good,’ that it would weaken us to offer a solution.”
Side note-I believe the oversight committee assignments to the high profile, liberal Freshman was a show of strength as well. Think about the timing given the behind the scenes look. She demonstrated loyalty would be rewarded.
This was a masterful performance that will go down in history. Frankly, Nov 2018-Jan 2019 could be the final act of the Nancy Pelosi biography. From the fight for the speakership, to the Trump pres conference, to the SOTU fight, to the final win. That’s a screenplay waiting to happen. A thing of beauty for any political observer.
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A brief update:
Here is an article with Pelosi in her own words on her strategy.
The Pelosi Method
As Trump prepared to cave on the shutdown, Pelosi revealed how she stands up to an obstinate president.
There was some question as to whether this was Politico attempting to stir up trouble. It looks like it was coordinated as Pelosi brought reporters in to tell her side of the story.