Nancy Pelosi!

Nancy Pelosi

You be the judge

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi boldly defended a move to add birth control funding to the new economic "stimulus" package, claiming "contraception will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government." Pelosi, the mother of 5 children and 6 grandchildren, who once said, "Nothing in my life will ever, ever compare to being a mom," seemed to imply babies are somehow a burden on the treasury. Hundreds of millions of dollars to expand family planning services. How is that stimulus? PELOSI: Well, the family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children's health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those - one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government. So no apologies for that? "No apologies. No. we have to deal with the consequences of the downturn in our economy.

Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi (born March 26, 1940) is the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives. A Democrat, Nancy Pelosi is the first woman to lead a major political party in either house of Congress.

November 7th 2006 Nancy Pelosi won the seat of Speaker of the House of Representatives. After the Democrats won control of the United States House of Representatives in the 2006 Congressional Elections.

Nancy Pelosi Early life and career

Pelosi was born Nancy D'Alesandro in Baltimore, Maryland to Italian American parents. Nancy Pelosi became involved in politics at an early age and her father, Thomas D'Alesandro, Jr., was a U.S. Congressman from Maryland and also a Mayor of Baltimore. Pelosi attended Trinity College (now Trinity Washington University) in Washington, DC, where Nancy Pelosi met her future husband, Paul Pelosi. When the couple married, they moved to his hometown of San Francisco, where his brother was a member of the city's Board of Supervisors (San Francisco city & county--council).

Once the youngest of their five children became a senior in high school, Nancy Pelosi became involved in Democratic politics, working her way up to becoming party chairwoman for Northern California, and joining forces with one of the leaders of California Democratic Party politics, 5th District Congressman Phillip Burton.

She is an honorary board member of the National Organization of Italian American Women.

Nancy Pelosi Family

Pelosi's daughter Alexandra covered the Republican presidential campaigns in 2000 made a movie about the experience. Nancy Pelosi did the same thing is 2004, resulting in a book. The Pelosi family has a net worth of over $25 million, mainly investments of husband Paul Pelosi. Besides a large portfolio of jointly owned San Francisco Bay Area real estate, he also has millions of dollars worth of shares in publicly traded companies such as Microsoft, Amazon.com and AT&T.

Nancy Pelosi Congressional career

When Burton died in 1983, his wife Sala won a special election to complete his term. When Nancy Pelosi became ill with cancer, Nancy Pelosi suggested that Pelosi run for her seat in 1988. Sala Burton died on February 1, 1987, just a month after being sworn in for a second full term. Pelosi won in a special election to succeed her, narrowly defeating left wing San Francisco Supervisor Harry Britt, and took office on June 2, 1987. Nancy Pelosi was elected to a full term in 1988 and has been reelected eight times, often with more than 70% of the vote. The 8th is one of the safest Democratic districts in the country; Democrats have held the seat since 1949. Pelosi has kept this tradition going. Nancy Pelosi has never faced a credible Republican opponent, which is not surprising since Republicans only make up 13 percent of registered voters in the district.

After the Tiananmen protests of 1989, Pelosi became a supporter of the Chinese democracy movement and vocal critic of the government of the People's Republic of China and sponsored the Chinese Student Protection Act of 1992.

In the House, Nancy Pelosi served on the Appropriations and Intelligence Committees, and spent long hours raising funds for other members. Nancy Pelosi was the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee for two years.

Nancy Pelosi Democratic Party leadership

In 2001, Nancy Pelosi was elected to the position of House Minority Whip, serving as second-in-command to Minority Leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri. Since then, Nancy Pelosi has campaigned for candidates in 30 states and in 90 Congressional districts, garnering support for her further climb to the top.

In 2002, after Gephardt resigned as minority leader to seek the Democratic nomination in the 2004 presidential election, Pelosi was elected minority leader.

Nancy Pelosi Record

Nancy Pelosi during the 2006 Chinese new year celebrations in San FranciscoPelosi has been widely praised by liberals for her criticism of steps taken by the George W. Bush administration in the years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Nancy Pelosi was a member of the Progressive Caucus until Nancy Pelosi became the party leader, when Nancy Pelosi adopted a policy of not belonging to any caucuses. Republicans in some areas of the country, especially the South, have used the prospect of a "San Francisco liberal" or "Bay Area liberal" becoming Speaker of the House as a tool to win over voters since Pelosi, as Minority Leader, would likely become Speaker if the Democrats regain control of Congress. Nationally syndicated radio talk-show host Neal Boortz has deemed San Francisco "Pelosi Land". In San Francisco, however, Pelosi is sometimes seen as more moderate than liberal, because Nancy Pelosi voted for the Patriot Act (which Nancy Pelosi now opposes) and authored the Presidio Trust Act, which privatized the Presidio of San Francisco. Like most House Democrats, Pelosi opposed the resolution authorizing Bush to use military force against Iraq. Nancy Pelosi has strongly criticized the war effort since then, and introduced an amendment to the FY 2006 Defense Appropriations bill calling on Bush to specify a strategy for success in Iraq, as well as a timetable for a safe withdrawal of American troops.