{"id":2759,"date":"2010-09-20T08:48:26","date_gmt":"2010-09-20T12:48:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=2759"},"modified":"2010-09-20T14:48:01","modified_gmt":"2010-09-20T18:48:01","slug":"should-pelosi-follow-gingrichs-lead-and-step-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/09\/20\/should-pelosi-follow-gingrichs-lead-and-step-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Should Pelosi follow Gingrich&#8217;s lead and step down?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Newt Gingrich is most often remembered as the architect of the 1994 takeover of the House by a new generation of far more conservative Republicans.<\/p>\n<p>But the next big chapter in his political story came when the GOP suffered humiliating setbacks in the 1998 midterms, very nearly losing their hard-won majority.<\/p>\n<p>Gingrich acknowledged his role in the debacle and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1998\/11\/08\/us\/the-speaker-steps-down-excerpts-from-phone-call-about-gingrich-s-future.html\">agreed to step down, relinquishing his speakership and his seat in the House<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>After four years of supremacy in American politics, Gingrich exited the state, saying cryptically, &#8220;I&#8217;m willing to lead but I&#8217;m not willing to preside over people who are cannibals.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Curious rhetoric aside, our current Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, should consider following Gingrich&#8217;s example.<\/p>\n<p>Like Gingrich, she presided over a revolution in politics.\u00a0 In fact, she and her lieutenants built a much larger majority than her Republican counterpart ever managed.<\/p>\n<p>In the process, Pelosi helped to rewire North Country politics, contributing to the takeover of NY-20, NY23 and NY-24 by Democrats after decades of Republican control.<\/p>\n<p>Despite that legacy, and despite a long list of legislative accomplishments, Pelosi has never mastered the role of national leader.<\/p>\n<p>Her poll numbers are among the most abysmal in American politics and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2010\/09\/19\/AR2010091904585.html\">even many members of her own party question<\/a> whether she is the appropriate person to shape the Democrats&#8217; message.<\/p>\n<p>Most observers think Speaker Pelosi&#8217;s troops are about to suffer a major defeat, losing dozens of seats and possibly their majority.<\/p>\n<p>As the mid-term elections approach, she might bolster her party&#8217;s flagging fortunes by announcing that it&#8217;s time for her to step back, opening a new debate over who should lead House Democrats.<\/p>\n<p>This strategy worked for Republicans.\u00a0 After Gingrich stepped down, freeing his party of one of its most polarizing figures, the GOP continued to bleed small numbers of seats.<\/p>\n<p>But Democrats weren&#8217;t able to seize a majority until 2006.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s arguable that Gingrich&#8217;s sacrifice extended his party&#8217;s dominance of American politics for the better part of decade.\u00a0\u00a0 Now that&#8217;s leadership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Newt Gingrich is most often remembered as the architect of the 1994 takeover of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[886],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2759"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2759"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2760,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2759\/revisions\/2760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}