Pelosi hopes new book is more popular than Congress

"That is the warped perspective of the President of the United States," she concludes.

The White House declined to comment on Pelosi's book Tuesday.

Though she takes on the White House, the speaker does not delve into her battles with congressional Republicans or with her Democratic rivals, and she avoids topics that most voters have indicated they disdain.

For example, Pelosi does not discuss her fierce struggle with Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, now the House majority leader, for leadership of the Democratic caucus or her efforts to rein in Democratic committee chairmen after the party took control of the House last year.

Nor does she offer any details about her controversial, and ultimately unsuccessful, push last year to force Bush to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq, perhaps the signature issue of her speakership.

Pelosi provides hints of her leadership style only in one instance: her 2005 confrontation with Bush over his proposal to create private retirement accounts in place of the Social Security system.

At the time, some Democrats suggested that the party come up with an alternative platform. But she and her allies chose another strategy.

"First, you must take down the ratings of your opposition," Pelosi writes. "Second, you must differentiate yourselves from them.

"And third, only when the time is right do you present your platform."

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noam.levey@latimes.com