SAN FRANCISCO — Nancy Pelosi is explaining the ways of Washington, how second-guessing is second nature there, when she offers an unusual observation. "You have to understand," she says, "Washington is a secret-sauce town."
Which is her way of disdaining those who profess to know the perfect ingredient -- the secret sauce -- for political success, if only the likes of Pelosi paid proper heed. Pull the troops from Iraq. No, let President Bush find a way out. Offer a fix for Social Security. No, simply torpedo the president's plan.
Pelosi is the leader of Democrats in the House of Representatives, arguably one of the toughest jobs in politics. There is the hand-holding required of the party's 200-plus members, enough to create a morass but not a majority on Capitol Hill. There is the impotence -- and daily indignity -- of being outnumbered by unyielding Republicans.
And of course there is all that free, often contradictory, advice.
Pelosi, her smile unwavering, her energy unflagging, insists she knows the recipe for winning back the House in November. "It's one good month in front of another," she says in an interview between hometown appearances. "Beat Social Security. Make sure the world knows what's happening ... ethically. Attract the candidates. Raise the money. Build the unity for our message."
Her own sauciness shows in the way Pelosi dismisses all the carping and critics. "The fact there would be sniping among Democrats
While Republicans wrestle with a scandal-induced change in their congressional leadership -- with a vote set for early next month -- Democrats have wed their political fortunes to Pelosi, who has led the party in the House for the last three years. To many Democrats, that is a decidedly mixed blessing.
As the highest-ranking woman in congressional history, the 65-year-old Pelosi can boast a number of accomplishments. She has helped the party raise record sums of money, helped recruit a strong crop of candidates for November and presided over the most unified group of House Democrats -- as measured by party-line votes -- in many years.
Martin Frost, a former Texas congressman who opposed Pelosi's rise to power, now praises her performance. "Nancy has worked hard to bring Democrats together," said Frost, a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, who waged a short-lived campaign for the job Pelosi now holds.
