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Madam Speaker

January 13, 2007 12:50 am

Gender aside, here's how Nancy Pelosi can really make history

KUDOS to newly crowned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The smiling grandmother-slash-pugnacious San Francisco pol is now third in line to be president. She is the first woman to achieve that milestone, as she noted just after accepting the speaker's gavel: "For our daughters and our granddaughters now, the sky is the limit." She has spoken of breaking not just a glass ceiling but a marble one--meaning the domed halls of political power, once monopolized by males, down which she now strides.

Yet if the nation makes little to-do about the moment, it's because, happily, America has reached the point where many barriers of old are just that: obstacles raised and faced by prior generations. Social progress is why Mrs. Pelosi's accomplishment seems barely to shock. As the old Virginia Slims commercial put it, "You've come a long way, baby." In 2007, Americans expect professionals of whatever gender to do their jobs well to the benefit of the served audience.

So while Speaker Pelosi's status is historic, her supporters' hosannas soon will fade if she can't cajole a new attitude from the House, reshaping the body so that it bears scant resemblance to some of its profligate, work-averse predecessors. That means reaching out to the minority party and striving for moderation rather than for the death grip on power that some recent GOP leaders seemed to covet--to their ultimate political grief.

She should remember, too, in this euphoric gender moment, that increased taxes, unlimited abortion rights, and assorted other liberal visions that she champions are anathema to many American women, millions of whom disagree with virtually everything she advocates.

Mrs. Pelosi's initial nods to bipartisanship after the November elections were cheering, some of her actual procedural moves regarding legislation much less so. Will she end up sowing harmony and respect under the marble ceilings, or practicing the unavailing smash-face politics of recent years? Let's hope that from that particular Washington pastime she will come a long way, baby.