If Joe Biden really wants to reach out to half the country that voted for Donald Trump, he’d dump both Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.
But he won’t, even if he could. He can’t govern without them.
Besides the unrelenting, media-supported attacks on Trump by Pelosi and Schumer, including his impeachment by Pelosi’s Democrat-controlled House and trial in the Senate, are major reasons why Trump was defeated.
They not only helped hound Trump out of office — with Trump handing them bones to chew on — but they will also continue trailing him wherever he goes. And the leftist, lapdog media will follow.
As a parting gesture Trump ought to tear apart his copy of Joe Biden’s inaugural speech, the way Pelosi ripped apart his 2019 State of the Union speech to Congress last February. “It was a dirty speech,” the classless Pelosi said.
So, Biden owes the pair big time. And if they need votes to secure their leadership positions, the new president would be able to supply them by leaning on legislators.
Right now, both Pelosi and Schumer are expected to be elected to their leadership positions by their Democrat colleagues, Pelosi as Speaker of the House, and Schumer as minority leader in the Senate, when the new Congress take the oath of office in January.
Pelosi, 80, secured her nomination for another term as speaker when the Democrats met in caucus last week. So did House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer, 81, and House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn, 80.
The full House of 435 members will vote on the nominations in January, and there is where the three octogenarians could run into trouble due to Republican gains in the House. It is not likely that they could lose, but you never know, and that is where Biden would come in.
Schumer’s future leadership role in the Senate depends on the outcome of two runoff U.S. Senate fights in Georgia that will be decided in January. They are between Republican incumbents Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue who are being challenged by Democrats Ralph Warnock and Jon Ossoff.
Regardless, a Biden administration, along with Democrat control of the House, is a good thing for Massachusetts, a state Biden easily carried over Trump. although Trump did manage to get 32% of the vote, or 1.1 million votes to Biden’s 65.7%, or 2.3 million votes.
Also of note is the steady rise in the House of Democrat U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark of Melrose. She has rocketed by her Massachusetts Democrat colleagues to become part of Pelosi’s leadership team.
As Pelosi was nominated as speaker, Clark, 57, a four-term member of the House, was elected assistant speaker, making her the fourth ranking member of Pelosi’s leadership team.
Clark’s rise to prominence in the House is a surprise to many because she accomplished it under the radar, without chasing after the media.
She was practically an anonymous member of the Massachusetts state Senate when in 2013 she won a special election in the 5th Congressional District to fill the remaining term of Edward Markey who went on to the U.S. Senate.
“I don’t even remember her being here,” one veteran Statehouse observer said.
A person entering a legislative body, whether it be at the Statehouse or in Washington, usually chooses one of two ways to operate — as an attention grabbing outsiders like Reps. Seth Moulton and Ayanna Pressley, or a quiet insiders, like Reps. Richard Neal of Springfield or James McGovern of Worcester, and now Clark.
Neal is chairman of the House ways and Means Committee, while McGovern heads the House Rules Committee.
The key to Cark’s rise to prominence in the House is her ability to work at the job — representing her district, forging House alliances, raising campaign money and climbing the Democrat political ladder.
You may not agree with her leftist views, but have to admire her ability to play the inside game.
From the start of her Congressional career Clark, a progressive, zeroed in on her goal to become a leader in the House, and she succeeded by forging alliances along the way.
One of the alliances was with New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the chair of the House Democrat Caucus. Clark had been vice chair.
The pair are in line to move up even higher, considering that the combined age of the three current leaders in the House comes to 241 years. That’s as old as the country.
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