About damned time

Stung by their party’s dispiriting showing at the polls Tuesday, two moderate House Democrats say they and other centrists are privately discussing a plan that was unthinkable just 24 hours earlier: throwing their support behind a challenger to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

The two Democrats told The Hill on Wednesday that they were reaching out to their colleagues about backing one of Pelosi’s top lieutenants, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), for Speaker in the next Congress.

“He’s the only one prepared and positioned” to be Speaker, said one of the Democratic lawmakers. “He bridges moderates and progressives better than anyone. And most importantly, he’s not Nancy Pelosi.”

  The Hill

Works for me.

The idea was immediately shot down by Jeffries, who says he's focused on keeping his current spot.

He could be persuaded.

Heading into the polls, Pelosi enjoyed the overwhelming support of her caucus — facing no threat of a Speakership challenge — and Democratic leaders were eyeing big gains to their majority, with some estimates in the double digits.

But the early returns revealed a different reality: Not only did Democrats lose a number of their most vulnerable members, they had not picked off a single Republican incumbent heading into Wednesday evening.

The results immediately emboldened Republican leaders, who accused Pelosi and her party of being out of touch with the country. And Democrats on and off of Capitol Hill were left licking their wounds and questioning the strategic decisions that guided their party's message throughout the campaign.

“Pelosi needed to hammer Trump but instead she chose to let him slide,” said one former senior Democratic aide. “Last night should have been a bloodbath for Republicans.”

[...]

[T]he party suffered the defeat of at least seven front-line members — the sitting lawmakers in the toughest districts. And the spate of Democratic losses were not limited to any one geographic region.

[...]

“It’s time for Democrats to elevate a new generation of leadership in both the House and the Senate,” one of the Democrats told The Hill.

Amen.

Pelosi’s campaign operation showcased her tremendous fundraising prowess. Team Pelosi said she had raised nearly $228 million in the 2020 cycle, including $67 million for Democrats just in the third quarter. And since she joined leadership in 2002, she has raised nearly $1 billion for the party.

Nobody's asking her to stop fundraising.

A Biden triumph would bring a jolt to disheartened rank-and-file members, while providing some measure of vindication for Pelosi's election-year strategy. Still, the early results in the House have been nothing shy of a profound disappointment for Democrats who'd entered the week hoping that a resounding blue wave would be a repudiation of Trump.

Yeah, so let's talk about Chuck Schumer.

The pair of Democratic lawmakers said they were in the process of reaching out to all of the “suburban survivors” of Tuesday night’s elections and had already spoken to two dozen members from various factions of the caucus, including the Congressional Black Caucus, Progressive Caucus, New Democrat Coalition and bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus.

[...]

Pelosi, the first female Speaker in the nation's history, told reporters before the elections that she would seek the gavel again if the Democrats kept control of the House. And given her defiant dealings with Trump over the last two years — well-received across the diverse caucus — she's been thought to be a shoo-in to retain that seat of power.

Drew Hammill, Pelosi's chief spokesman, dismissed the talk of a leadership shakeup as a premature distraction while the race between Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is undecided.

Well, consider yourselves on notice.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.