I wasn't familiar with Nancy Pelosi until those elections thrust her into the national spotlight, and when I first started paying attention to her, I thought, "Wow – for the most visible face of the Democratic Party, she sure looks like a Republican." In my experience, people with Pelosi's sense of style – power suits, fancy hairdos, and plastic surgery – tend to lean right of center and to put the will of the big bucks in front of the will of the people. But in the warm glow of the optimism of November 2006, I told myself that appearances can be deceiving and began hoping for the best.
It didn't take long for Pelosi and her fellow Democratic party leaders to let me down. Instead of stepping up as the antidote to Bush's poison and delivering the leftward pendulum swing so many of us were hoping for, Pelosi's House largely has failed to distinguish itself from the delegations that bowed to Bush from 2001 through 2006. And I'm not the only one who isn't digging Nancy's chili: approval ratings for Congress overall are even lower than approval ratings for Bush and have been for some time.
Back in July 2007, Cindy Sheehan promised that she would run against Nancy Pelosi if Nancy failed to pursue the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. Well, Nancy failed, and Cindy is following up by running against Pelosi this November.I think that campaigns like Cindy's – where real Americans run against the rich insiders who currently control Washington – are the clearest path to the big changes Americans are hungry for. I've donated to Cindy's congressional campaign, and I hope you will, too.
