(01-01) 02:29 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) --
Nancy Pelosi crashed through a glass ceiling when she became the first female House speaker a year ago. That turned out to be the easy part.
The reality of leading a bitterly divided Congress at odds with a Republican White House is that victories are difficult and disappointments many. Chief among them for the liberal San Francisco Democrat was failure to deliver on her biggest goal: ceasing U.S. combat missions in Iraq and getting troops on their way home.
The House's final days before winter break were reflective of Pelosi's up-and-down year: a major success — an energy bill including the first increase in vehicle fuel economy standards in 32 years — and two bitter defeats.
Hamstrung by Republican opposition and veto threats from President Bush, Pelosi had to abandon her promise to not add to the budget deficit when the House agreed to a $50 billion tax-relief bill without making up the loss to the Treasury. The House's final vote was on legislation giving Bush $70 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with no withdrawal deadlines attached.
"The war in Iraq is the biggest disappointment for us, I mean the inability to stop the war in Iraq," Pelosi, 67 and in her 11th House term, said in a recent round-table interview.
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/01/01/national/w002341S12.DTL