Who will replace Pelosi in Republican demonology?

Nancy Pelosi’s career is ending as it began. She entered Congress in 1986 during the Reagan administration and is ending it under the most influential Republican president since the Gipper. On Thursday she released a six-minute video announcing her retirement in 2027 from Congress, the latest octogenarian to depart it.

No sooner did this contagonist announce that she would not seek reelection, than Donald Trump crowed that he had outlasted her. Old age, it seems, is no barrier to a slanging match. A few days ago the 85-year old Pelosi called him an “evil creature.” Now Trump, on the verge of becoming an octogenarian himself, returned the favor. She was evil, corrupt and only focused on bad things for our country,” Trump said. “She was rapidly losing control of her party, and it was never coming back. I’m very honored that she impeached me twice and failed miserably twice. Nancy Pelosi is a highly overrated politician.”

The impeachments, the first over Ukraine, the second January 6, went nowhere. But the notion that Pelosi was overrated does not hold water. At the 1984 Republican convention UN ambassador Jeane J. Kirkpatrick mocked what she called “the San Francisco Democrats “– weak, spineless, simpering. But this was one San Francisco Democrat who did not fit that mold. Pelosi had sat at the feet of her father, the mayor of Baltimore.

She was a skilled and ruthless operator, superior to many of the men she dealt with during her political career, including Barack Obama. It was Pelosi who ensured that Obamacare passed the House of Representatives in 2010. This measure, which, after a faltering start, has gained mounting popularity, including in the Red states, continues to bedevil the Republican Party and Trump. It is at the core of the current government shutdown as the Democrats demand the restoration of subsidies for health insurance. In a sense, Pelosi has had more than a small measure of vengeance against her detractors.

A new generation of Democratic females such as AOC will take the place in Republican demonology. Whom the Democrats, in turn, will focus on in coming years in the House of Representatives is an open question. A prime candidate, Marjorie Taylor Greene, has lately been the recipient of friendly overtures from liberals besotted by her criticisms of the Republican leadership and the government shutdown. Indeed, speaking on Thursday on CNN, Greene had this to say about Pelosi: “I will praise Nancy Pelosi. She had an incredible career for her party. I served under her during her Speakership in Congress. I was very impressed in her ability to get things done.” Could this be the beginning of a beautiful friendship?