Freshman orientation for new members of Congress began Tuesday on Capitol Hill. The temptation of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has been ongoing.
The presumed House speaker isn’t being tempted. She is the one doing the tempting, dangling prime committee assignments in front of hungry freshmen and reminding her young new colleagues of all the campaign contributions she made to get them elected.
Her office has been the ruin of many reform-minded Democrats, and Rep.-elect Andy Kim, D-N.J., certainly seems like one. He said all the right things about changing Washington on the campaign trail. Now he is falling in line.
Kim in New Jersey said he wouldn’t support her. He said, “It’s time we have new leadership on both sides of the aisle in Washington to get the job done.”
Kim in Congress said he is “not making any commitments.” He exited freshman orientation and it seems obvious he had changed: “I certainly wanted a new generation of leadership and that’s certainly still something I want.”
Kim can still resist, of course. Nothing is certain until the House actually votes on the floor. But don’t hold out hope for the young congressman. He succumbed to temptation twice, first in March and then in May. FEC filings show that Kim cashed two checks each for $2,000 from the Nancy Pelosi for Congress campaign.
This isn’t her first knife fight, and Pelosi plans on ending any insurrection before it starts. Plenty of those starry-eyed members who said they wouldn’t support her also took her money. That Kim is wavering so early is an early indication that he is about to pledge fealty. He will have company, and more than likely Pelosi will be speaker because she is coming to collect.
