Presumptive House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took the podium Wednesday to outline her party’s plans for the future and to reassure voters that she won’t lead a liberal inquisition against President Bush.
“Impeachment is off the table,” said Pelosi, D-Calif. “Democrats are not about getting even. Democrats are about helping people get ahead.”
But Pelosi made clear that her party’s victory Tuesday was a mandate for change — especially with regard to the war in Iraq.
“If there was anything clear from the election results, it was that the harder the president campaigned on the war, the fewer votes the Republicans … got,” Pelosi said. “So the campaign is over. That’s it.”
Beaming widely before a throng of media in the sweltering Rayburn Room of the House, Pelosi confined herself to broad statements and took only four questions.
She used the word “bipartisan” at least eight times in her few minutes before the media, and said that she had promised the president that she would cooperate with him as much as possible.
If her party votes as expected, Pelosi will be the first woman speaker of the House. She said that she wants to raise the minimum wage and to organize “a responsible redeployment” of U.S. forces in Iraq.
One of the Democrats’ main goals was accomplished within an hour of Pelosi’s news conference. Shortly after Pelosi called for “a change in civilian leadership” at the Pentagon, Bush announced that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had resigned.
Pelosi brushed aside a question on a coming struggle for House leadership. Current House Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., has said he expects to become majority leader. But Pelosi is reportedly backing Pennsylvania Democrat John Murtha for the post.
Hoyer is more conservative than Pelosi and has been critical of her leadership.
His spokesman, Tim Schlittner, said the conflict wouldn’t affect the party’s goals.
“Mr. Hoyer is confident that he has the support of a majority of returning members and members-elect,” Schlittner wrote in an e-mail to The Examiner. “He will continue to focus on bringing our caucus together so we can solve the problems facing this nation.”
