Angry Dems Confront Pelosi
img class="size-full wp-image-24012 alignleft" title="nancy-pelosi" src="/files/wxrimport/2010-11/nancy-pelosi.jpg" alt="" width="205" height="105" /><Politico reports:
Disgruntled Democrats finally had a chance to confront Speaker Nancy Pelosi face to face for the first time during a raucous closed-door caucus meeting Tuesday, as defeated Rep. Allen Boyd called her "the face of our defeat."
"We need new leadership," Boyd, a Florida Democrat, told his colleagues, according to sources in the room.
His comments were made shortly after Pelosi told Democrats she was targeted in races around the country because she is an effective leader for them. The Democratic gathering was the first gathering of the caucus since the party lost control of the House.
Pelosi has asked her colleagues to elect her minority leader despite the loss of at least 60 seats.
"I know some of you suffered because of ads targeted to me," Pelosi said to lawmakers at a closed-door Democratic Caucus meeting Tuesday. "They had to take down the person who brings the resources."
Several sources confirmed the remarks to POLITICO.
Pelosi, who is deeply unpopular with independents, became an issue in races across the country, as she appeared in campaign ads against Democrats.
Pelosi, described as "nervous" by one source in the room Tuesday, is now trying to tamp down an incipient rebellion from lawmakers who believe she should not win election to the post of minority leader on Wednesday.
In tying the two pieces together, Pelosi is connecting her perceived weakness — poster woman for Democratic excess — to her acknowledged strength as a party rainmaker.
The Democratic gathering was a somber crowd blending the re-elected with the just-defeated.
But Democratic leaders sought to lend import to the work the departing members did in delivering the Democratic agenda.
Majority Whip Jim Clyburn connected the Democratic agenda and subsequent losses to the civil rights movement
"Sometimes doing the right thing will cause you to pay dearly," he said, according to a source in the room. "Sometimes what's good for the American people is not good for the high and mighty."
Two liberal lawmakers, Reps. Marcy Kaptur (Ohio) and Peter DeFazio (Ore.), asked their colleagues to postpone Wednesday's planned leadership election until December — a move that would further threaten Pelosi's standing as Democratic leader.
Pelosi, her top elected lieutenants and her aides have been scrambling to defuse discontent following the election.
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