In an interview with POLITICO Magazine, Emanuel noted his appreciation for the realpolitik approach that she brought to making legislative change.
“She doesn’t just talk ideas,” he said. “She knows that winning elections is the only way you can enact those ideas. And sometimes a lot of people in our activist wing don’t understand that winning elections is the route to enacting your policy goals.”
In recent decades, other House speakers from both parties have been ousted, humiliated or pushed out for one reason or another. Her tenure was certainly not flawless, but as she retires after nearly four decades in Congress, Emanuel explains why Pelosi is seen as standing alone in the modern era.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
What should Nancy Pelosi be remembered for?
I don’t think it’s a singular thing. Going back to when she first became speaker, 20 years to date, there isn’t a major policy that doesn’t have her thumbprint on it. Minimum wage, ACA, financial reform and regulation, infrastructure, climate investments. There’s just nothing major that doesn’t have — not just that she passed it — but her imprint on what she passed.
I’ll tell you one story.
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