And they’re gleefully promoting it as a real hatchet job.
There’s a new book coming out about Nancy Pelosi by a couple of the biggest smartass reporters at the NY Times. (Oh how I wish I could read Boehlert’s take on this one…)
Here is what they’ve decided to “share” with beltway kewl kidz at Punchbowl to promote it:
Count us as very excited for Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns’ new book “This Will Not Pass.” It comes out May 3, and you should order it. In fact, tell your friends to order it from their local bookstores.
Thanks to Burns and Martin – we worked with both of them at Politico – we got some juicy nuggets for you on Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Burns and Martin sat down with Pelosi twice for this book, which covers the end of the Trump era and the beginning of Joe Biden’s presidency.
→ Pelosi resented that she had to “beg” her Democratic colleagues to give her the job as speaker again. “The experience of begging for support was wearing on her. .. Pelosi was the only Democrat in the chamber — the only Democrat alive — who had already served as Speaker, who had shown she could do the legislative arithmetic and twist the necessary arms to get things done. And yet [her fellow Democrats] were making her grovel. ‘At this point in my life, I don’t need this,’ she vented.
“Her victory in holding onto the speakership, ‘seemed like a joyless one.’ Pelosi expressed “her frustration with unusual vehemence that day, discussing her political future in a way she rarely did around colleagues. ‘You couldn’t pay me a billion dollars to run for Speaker again,’ Pelosi said.”
→ Pelosi privately blames progressives for nearly costing Democrats the House and said AOC and Jayapal were fighting to be “queen bee” of the left. “In a few strictly confidential conversations she pointed a finger leftward. Pelosi told one senior lawmaker that Democrats had alienated Asian and Hispanic immigrants with loose talk of socialism. In some of the same communities, the Italian Catholic speaker said, Democrats had not been careful enough about the way they spoke about abortion among new Americans who were devout people of faith.”
“During the infrastructure vote, Pelosi was angry “and in private she vented about the progressive blockade that had forced her to cancel the infrastructure vote. … She told another House Democrat that Pramila Jayapal and Ocasio-Cortez were vying to be the ‘queen bee’ of the left, but that their reward might be serving in the House minority after the next election.”
→ Pelosi was ticked at Biden for nominating ‘untrustworthy” Xavier Becerra for the Cabinet. “To some Democrats, Becerra was a baffling choice. He was not a public- health expert, and he was certain to face a tough confirmation fight if Republicans held the Senate. Among the flummoxed Democrats was perhaps the most significant political partner for the incoming administration: Nancy Pelosi. The Speaker had worked closely with Becerra in the House and saw him as untrustworthy.
“‘You should know who you’re hiring,’ she chided Ricchetti, according to a person briefed on the conversation. Noting that she was a former colleague of Becerra, and a fellow Californian, she added archly: ‘I may have some valuable information.’”
→ Pelosi on Ron Klain. “Not all Democrats shared Biden’s admiration for Klain; some party leaders grumbled about his hard-charging manner and expansive intellectual confidence. The Speaker of the House was one of those Democrats. Late in the 2020 campaign, Pelosi grew openly annoyed when an adviser urged her to consult with Klain about health care legislation. What, she asked, does Ron Klain know about anything?”
Again, order this book.
Yeah, no. I won’t be ordering this one. Even if the book isn’t 100 hit job, which it probably is, these excerpts are designed to get the wingnuts excited and divide the Democrats at a critical time. It’s the most destructive form of beltway journalism and they just can’t quit doing it, even in the face of a political leader who calls them the enemy of the people.