Posted in 52 Books in 52 Weeks 2009

Some of you may think it odd that I read this book, but last Monday morning I  read this blog post by my friend Katherine say what? , and then Monday evening I was browsing the new book shelf at the library and saw Know Your Power: A Message to America's Daughters by Nancy Pelosi.

It's a very short book, a quick read.  I did not know very much about Pelosi except that she has five children and is Catholic.   I did see her appearance on Meet The Press last year, when she called herself an "ardent, practicing Catholic" and then claimed the Church was confused on abortion (more info here).

She presents herself as a mom who just happened to become a Congresswoman and then the first female Speaker of the House. One section of the book is called "Kitchen to Congress" although she makes it clear several times that she was never really that domesticated. However, immediately into the book it reminded me of Outliers which I reviewed back in December.  Her father was a Congressman during her early childhood and then became Mayor of Baltimore when she was 7 and served in JFK's administration as well. She met JFK and was actually at his inauguration for his famous "Ask not what your country can do for you" speech.  Pelosi had her 10,000 hours of political experience by a very young age.  In contrast, if I decided to run for Congress, I wouldn't have a clue what to do.

To continue with the Outliers idea, the other key is opportunity. Pelosi's first actual position with a title was one that the Mayor of San Francisco appointed her to. While she was home with her children, she also was always active in some way in the Democratic party, and her husband's family was well-connected.  She was friends with the Congresswoman previous to her, and on this woman's deathbed, she told Nancy that she wanted her to run for her seat.  So, Pelosi first ran for Congress in a special election with the public knowing that she was the choice of their recently deceased representative.  That's quite an opportunity! And she was able to raise a million dollars in 6 weeks!  To raise that sort of money, you have to really know a lot of people with spare cash, another opportunity.

It's really hard to connect the woman who advocated abortion and contraception on MTP with the one who wrote "Growing up Catholic had an enormous impact on me - greater, I am certain, than growing up in a political family."  She stresses her faith throughout the book, even using the old-fashioned custom of saying what feast day something happened ("On March 19, 2003, the feast of St. Joseph, I received a call from Condoleezza Rice.")  But I really have to wonder how solid that faith can be when she so clearly advocates things that the Catholic Church considers intrinsically evil.

I have difficulty with Catholic politicians - the Kennedys, John Kerry, Joe Biden, etc.  I find that they engage in a lot of fuzzy thinking - Pelosi uses St. Augustine's arguments over when life actually began to defend her support of abortion rights, while completely ignoring the fact that abortion was always considered to be wrong.  These so-called Catholic politicians embody dissent and I cannot respect them. 

Besides stressing her faith, she also mentions her desire for bipartisan government.  I found that hard to swallow when she related this anecdote about their search for a house.  They had been living with her mother-in-law, with four little children, looking for a house to rent.  They finally found what seemed to be the perfect house.  They were about to sign a lease when Pelosi asked why the house was available. The owner told her, "My husband has been appointed Deputy Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, so we'll be going back East to join the Nixon administration."  So Pelosi answered," We won't be able to live here. I could never live anywhere that was made available because of the election of Richard Nixon."  So much for bipartisanship!

Another section I found ironic was from the beginning of her first campaign for Congress.  She says that people assumed she had little children at home and would ask who was taking care of them (her youngest was 17 at the time).  Then she says this: "In 1987, even among the progressives who wanted to see more women in public office, some were uneasy with the idea of a mother running for Congress who still had little children at home." Or a recently born baby, hmm? Or suggesting a 17 year old still needs her mom around?  That kind of rings a bell, doesn't it? 

Twenty years later, some people couldn't get over the fact that Sarah Palin attended a meeting when her baby was 3 days old.  Actually, it reminded me of when my daughter Gabrielle was born.  I had to sign my son up for soccer in person when she was five days old, and the lady signing him up was freaking that I was out with the baby.  I was just like, "There's no one else to do it!"  The state of Alaska doesn't stop just because you had a baby, and moms should be used to that, because neither does a two year old!

The next paragraph continues: "Another double standard is the way in which the press - and the public, too - examines a woman candidate's clothing and hair down to the millimeter. My male opponents received no such scrutiny."  Since Pelosi feels so strongly about these issues (and about bipartisanship!), don't you think that she should have issued some sort of statement showing solidarity with Sarah Palin?  Hmm, guess not.

I also thought that the Democratic party was concerned about climate change and lessening one's carbon footprint, but I guess Pelosi isn't.   She informs us that she knew before she ran that her husband would never live in Washington, and so for over 20 years, she has flown home just about every weekend.  "I've flown across the country fifteen hundred times, maybe more."

One of the most striking things about Pelosi is how organized she is, and organization is key to winning elections.  She admits in this book that the constant denigration of President Bush was the first phase of the Democrats' plan to take back power.  It began with Bush's plan to privatize Social Security and continued with the handling of Hurricane Katrina.  It's interesting that I don't hear anyone blaming the power outages in the midwest occurring now on President Obama.  Through this strategy, Bush's approval rating dropped twenty percent.

I am consoled by the fact that she will probably never run for president, because I think if she did, she would win.  And that might be scarier than having Hillary Clinton as president.  At least she's not pretending to be Catholic.