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Speaker Pelosi? Will Divisive Democrat Soon Control The House Again?

   DailyWire.com

Nancy Pelosi is still out there — waiting and watching.

The 78-year-old Democrat from California just won’t go away. Prominent members of her own party have begged her to reduce her leadership role — perhaps even retire and disappear — but Pelosi has repeatedly vowed to continue her rule of the party.

Pelosi, who was House Speaker from 2007 until the GOP took control of the chamber in 2011, is poised to resume that powerful position.

House Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday announced he would not seek re-election. The Wisconsin Republican, 48, said he didn’t want to go on commuting from his home to Washington, D.C., which makes him just a “weekend Dad.”

“If I am here for one more term, my kids will only ever have known me as a weekend Dad — I just can’t let that happen,” he said.

But that’s what politicos always say when they walk away, that they want to “spend more time with their families.” While Axios reported that Ryan has been supremely frustrated by President Trump in trying to do his job, the real reason for his departure is simple: He knows the GOP will lose the House in November.

Daily Wire Editor-In-Chief Ben Shapiro laid out the party’s problems.

“Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) is leaving Congress. So are Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ), Darrell Issa (R-CA), Lamar Smith (R-TX), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Charlie Dent (R-PA), Dave Reichert (R-WA), Pat Tiberi (R-OH), Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), Lynn Jenkins (R-KA), Sam Johnson (R-TX), John Duncan (R-TN), Ted Poe (R-TX), Dave Trott (R-MI), Ryan Costello (R-PA), Bill Shuster (R-PA), Gregg Harper (R-MS), Tom Rooney (R-FL), among several others. The blue wave is coming, and it isn’t going to be pretty. President Trump’s approval ratings are still low by poll averages, and Democratic enthusiasm is at record highs. Ryan’s leaving signals to donors that the House is in serious trouble.”

The latest polls show Democrats far more enthusiastic to vote in November: The most recent Economist/YouGov shows Democrats with an 8-point advantage, 44% to 36%. Plus, the party in the White House almost always loses seats in mid-term elections — both George W. Bush and Barack Obama lost at least one congressional chamber in mid-terms.

For her part, Pelosi, now House Minority Leader, said she hopes Ryan will spend his final months in office working with Democrats “constructively” for all Americans. She called Ryan an “avid advocate for his point of view and for the people of his district” and commended him for his “steadfast commitment to our country.”

And Pelosi, who has already served 16 terms in the House, has filed paperwork to run again in 2018. Still, some party leaders wish she’d go away.

Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) said late last year it was time for Pelosi — and other longtime party leaders — to depart and let a new generation lead House Democrats.

“Our leadership does a tremendous job, but we do have this real breadth and depth of talent within our caucus and I do think it’s time to pass the torch to a new generation of leaders,” Sanchez said.

In February, The Atlantic wrote a piece headlined “The Once and Future Speaker? Is Nancy Pelosi’s leadership the key to Democrats regaining the House, or the thing that will hold them back?”

“[A] small group of restive Democrats is gunning for Pelosi. They’re maneuvering in public, and recruiting support behind the scenes, to force her departure. They want to set off a generational shift for Democrats that they believe is long overdue. And their efforts—joined to the familiar attacks from Republicans, who have made them the linchpin of their bid to retain the House—are calling Pelosi’s political future into question just as she sits on the cusp of regaining power,” the magazine wrote.

When Pelosi was re-elected as the top Democrat in the House this year, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters, “I truly believe as long as she’s leader we keep the majority.”

That’s all about to change — and Paul Ryan’s leaving town before it does.

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