Congratulations, Speaker Pelosi, on 20 years in the House

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Stronger than ever after 20 years
Pelosi marks milestone, having risen from quiet obscurity to become House's leading voice
Edward Epstein, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Sunday, June 10, 2007

(06-10) 04:00 PDT Washington -- It was something of a shock 20 years ago to the newly elected congresswoman from San Francisco who had campaigned as "a voice that will be heard'' when she arrived in the Capitol for her swearing-in and was promptly told to sit down and shut up.
It might have been the last time anyone ever said that to Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the proudly liberal Democrat, prodigious fundraiser and organizer for her party, and legislative workhorse who last January made history by becoming the first woman, Californian and San Franciscan elected to the House's highest post as speaker.
"When I came here to be sworn in, I asked how much time will I get to speak and they said none,'' Pelosi recalled in an interview with The Chronicle in her Capitol offices, which feature one of the best views in Washington, straight down the National Mall toward the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.
The upstart freshman told her party's leaders, including then-Speaker Jim Wright, D-Texas, that silence wouldn't do. They relented, a tad, probably because as the daughter of a former Democratic House member from Baltimore and as former chairwoman of the California Democratic Party, Pelosi was hardly a political naif.
"Keep it short. Keep it short,'' she recalled being told on June 9, 1987, as she was about to be sworn into office.
Pelosi spoke, thanking the late Phil and Sala Burton, the husband and wife who were her mentors and predecessors representing what was then California's Fifth Congressional District. And she quickly laid out a San Francisco political credo as relevant today as it was in 1987 in the waning days of the Reagan administration and the early years of the AIDS epidemic.
"We are very proud of the Fifth Congressional District and its leadership for peace, for environmental protection, for equal rights, for rights of individual freedom and now we must take the leadership of course in the crisis of AIDS,'' she told the House in her 10-sentence statement.

more:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/10/MNG8CQCRCP1.DTL

[Rydz777]

1. She's a remarkable woman - a very successful political career and

a very successful wife, mother, and grandmother.

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2. kick n/t