The Morning Briefing: Weakened Pelosi May Not Survive as Speaker in 2021

Pelosi Is Probably Toast

Happy Hump Day, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. I checked everywhere and it seems that America is still here for the moment.

With all of the hubbub surrounding the presidential race, precious little media attention has been given to what has been going on in the House and the Senate. That’s mostly because the news hasn’t been so good for the Democrats.

There was more good news for Republicans on Tuesday, with Thom Tillis finally being declared the winner in the North Carolina Senate race. Dan Sullivan should soon be declared the winner in Alaska, which has a very slow process for counting absentee ballots. That would give the GOP 50 Senate seats, taking off the pressure to have to win both of the Georgia runoff races.

Over in the House, Republican women were flipping even more seats, further weakening the Democrats’ control, which they firmly believed they were going to strengthen.

The diminishing Democratic grip on the House is presenting problems for Speaker Nancy Pelosi. There is increasing speculation that Granny Boxwine won’t be able to survive the next vote for speaker.

Tyler had the details yesterday:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) may be in serious trouble come January. While prognosticators predicted that Democrats would take the majority in the U.S. Senate and pick up more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives this year, Republicans actually held on to many contested seats and they picked up seats in the House. In fact, some have suggested that Pelosi may lose control of the House even if Democrats keep their majority.

On Sunday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) insisted that Republicans are “close enough now that we can control the floor with a few Democrats joining us.”

Democrats are no doubt disgruntled with their under-performance after so much exuberant rhetoric leading up to the election. There could be many who were once reflexively loyal to Pelosi who are now willing to break ranks and shake up the leadership.

House Democrats may want a change simply because its upper echelon is getting a little long in the tooth. Pelosi is 80, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is 81, and House Majority Whip James Clyburn is 80. There might be some energetic septuagenarian whippersnappers over there ready to take their places.

It does seem more and more that the writing is on the wall for Pelosi though:

Looks like @LauraBaris was right. Nancy Pelosi appears to not have the votes to keep the gavel.

— Peoples_Pundit (@Peoples_Pundit) November 10, 2020

Pelosi should never be counted out, however. She’s survived several challenges to her authority before. She probably should have lost her grip on leadership after the shellacking that the Democrats took at the hands of the Tea Party in 2010. Few would have survived. She not only hung on as minority leader, but stayed around long enough to regain the speaker’s gavel.

The big difference, as I’ve written on many occasions, is that Speaker Pelosi 2.0 is a greatly diminished version of Speaker Pelosi 1.0. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her “Squad” began pushing Pelosi around from almost the moment they were first sworn in. It was quite stunning to see how little fight Pelosi had in her for them.

If Pelosi does get tossed from the ranks of leadership it will more than likely hasten her retirement from the House altogether.

Granny isn’t liked by Republicans, obviously, but we would do well to remember that we’re always in “be careful what you wish for” territory when it comes to changes in Democratic leadership.

There’s never a shortage of people who are even worse waiting in the wings.

‘Bout Sums It Up

Adam: "Abel's dead, we need an autopsy."
Cain: "Why? Just accept he's dead. Hold a funeral."
Adam: "I want an autopsy to know if he was murdered."
Cain: "It was a natural death."
Adam: "Maybe, let's have an autopsy to be sure."
Cain: "The Serpent has already spoken his eulogy."

— Alexander Macris (@archon) November 11, 2020

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME

From pond to pin! Rahm skips to a hole-in-one on No. 16 at #themasters pic.twitter.com/JNNPWgW9OP

— The Masters (@TheMasters) November 10, 2020

Bee Me

After Wiping Out Half The Universe, Thanos Calls For Unity https://t.co/J0syLaTcYs

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) November 10, 2020

The Kruiser Kabana

pic.twitter.com/3nbqEaRHqJ

— Archillect (@archillect) November 11, 2020

I think this two-parter is worth posting at least once a year.

Keep your mind open to possibilities but close your heart when you’re drunk.

___

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PJ Media Senior Columnist and Associate Editor Stephen Kruiser is the author of “Don’t Let the Hippies Shower” and “Straight Outta Feelings: Political Zen in the Age of Outrage,” both of which address serious subjects in a humorous way. Monday through Friday he edits PJ Media’s “Morning Briefing.” His columns appear twice a week.