In a culture where even the worst of political enemies are referred to as "my good friend," each struggles to find nice things to say about the other.
Their long-running dispute spilled onto the front pages of Roll Call -- the newspaper of Capitol Hill -- with an eyebrow-raising banner headline: "Pelosi Denies Whip Threats: Tauscher Charges Intimidation" as members were preparing to adjourn for their summer recess.
The Roll Call made no attempt to conceal the fact that the story was all Tauscher's doing:
Exposing a rift between two of the House's most powerful women, Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) charged this week that allies of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the state Legislature are threatening to weaken Tauscher's district in redistricting as retribution for her decision to back Pelosi's opponent in the race for party Whip. [...]
The rumors, according to Tauscher and associates both in Washington and California, began soon after.
If Tauscher's first mistake was shivving Pelosi, her second mistake was to go whining to Roll Call about it:
Tauscher charged that the effort is being led by state Sen. John Burton (D), a former Member of Congress and close Pelosi associate who is now the Senate's President Pro Tempore. [...]
Though he evidently intended to bury the rumors Burton nonetheless made little effort to disguise his contempt for Tauscher, suggesting that she was inviting trouble by voicing her concerns.
"The best way to get a problem with me is to run crying to the press," Burton said gruffly.
Burton described his close relationship with each of the Members in the Bay Area delegation, but pointedly excluded Tauscher from the list, concluding, "Ellen is not one to determine where her district would be."
In the end, Tauscher's two blunders ended up with Burton creating a new 10th District that would remove any fear of Tauscher losing in a general, but one that was specifically designed to allow her to lose in a primary if she kept undermining Pelosi.
Tauscher wasn't redistricted out of a seat, but was given a clear shape up or ship out choice.
Yet Tauscher was defiant, insisting that she would continue her DLC push to water down the Democratic Party.
Remember, Tauscher's one of Washington's rising Blue Dog Democrats -- she's vice chair of the Democratic Leadership Council -- and that leaves the liberal Bay Area Democrats feeling blue. [...]
"Our party is trending toward districts like mine -- coalition swing Democratic districts," Tauscher said. "The old guard is threatened by us. There's a real concerted effort to say, 'We don't want to grow any more like her.'
"The fact is, I've worked hard with my Bay Area colleagues. I don't rub their noses in the fact that the DLC picked up four seats in the last election.
If we're going to get the majority (in the House), we need to be more moderate."
Since then, Tauscher's side has been rejected by Democrats while Pelosi is about to be sworn in as Speaker.
Not only did Tauscher end up on the wrong side of history, potentially even worse is she ended up on the wrong side of Burton, who does all he can to help Pelosi:
In San Francisco, Pelosi's friends and allies concede that one adviser stands head and shoulders above the rest: John Burton, the tart-tongued liberal famous for championing the cause of the poor, elderly and homeless in Sacramento and as a House member in Washington. His sister-in-law, the late Rep. Sala Burton, wife of legendary San Francisco Rep. Phil Burton, summoned Pelosi to her deathbed to urge her to run for Congress.
It was Burton's top goal to get Pelosi the gavel, which has been completed. Now it is time to shore up Pelosi's support, which begins in a district Burton knows so well you'd think he drew it himself. |
