Nancy Pelosi trying to run political playbook of first speakership in 2007-08, but under Trump’s rules

WASHINGTON — Younger Democrats frustrated with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s cautious leadership style need to talk to their counterparts from a dozen years ago.

Back then, as the California Democrat made history as the first female speaker, Pelosi set a course that might feel quite similar: There was a bid to raise the minimum wage, a bipartisan energy bill and a sweeping rewrite of congressional ethics rules.

The biggest constitutional clash of the time — congressional Democrats trying to force a timeline for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq — ended in a parliamentary compromise that left a bitter taste for everyone.

But as the freshman Democrats of that era recall 12 years later, Pelosi set the table for a big victory in the next election that would then unleash the full force of the Democratic legislative agenda in 2009.

"I think she was very cold-blooded about what we could get done and what we couldn't get done," said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who defeated a 12-term House GOP incumbent in 2006. "And I think she saw the ability to expand the majority in 2008 and always had an eye on what was possible in her second two years, not just in her first two years as speaker."

Now, Pelosi is clearly trying to run the same playbook she executed in 2007 and 2008. She wants to set the stage, again, for a big presidential victory in 2020 that would also give Democrats power in the House and Senate, along with a chance to enact the sweeping agenda that liberal activists are clamoring for now.

But times are different, the Democratic personalities completely changed. A generational change has swept through, along with an ideological shift on the far left that has repositioned the speaker much closer to the middle of today's 235-member caucus.

So, six months into her new term as speaker, Pelosi's biggest critics come from the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and some of her staunchest supporters come from the Blue Dog and New Democrat coalitions. That seemed unimaginable less than a year ago, when Democrats running in swing districts talked about opposing her bid for speaker and the progressive caucus led the charge to secure the gavel for Pelosi after the November midterms thrust them into the majority.

Backed into a corner, Pelosi faces rebellion from both centrists and liberals.

The reversal hit a fever pitch inside Wednesday morning's caucus meeting, when the speaker rose to deliver a stern warning about intrafamily disputes that had been raging ever since the swing-district contingent forced the House to accept a Senate border bill that liberals deemed insufficient in offering protections for migrant children.

She told Democrats that she did not like the bill either, but that it was necessary to quickly get funds to deal with the border crisis. Then Pelosi turned her comments directly toward liberals who aired their grievances on social media, particularly the staff of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., whose team compared the centrist Democrats to segregationist Southern Democrats of the 1940s.

"You got a complaint? You come and talk to me about it. But do not tweet about our members and expect us to think that that is just OK," Pelosi said, according to a transcript provided to media outlets by a Democrat in the room.

The remarkably detailed remarks, more than 900 words long, made sure there was no picking and choosing of leaked quotes by others inside the closed-door huddle.

And it left some previous critics of Pelosi now publicly supportive.

"She showed strong leadership, and I think that she's recognizing, not only today but throughout this term, the importance that we need a big tent in the party," said Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., cochairman of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, which some liberals targeted in late June.

"The speaker is being very pragmatic. I think she is really weighing all of the scenarios, which is what you need in a leader. It really is. We don't need to make any rash decisions, and, honestly, I think she is just being very considerate and very concerned about all of the members," said Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Ga., who declined to endorse Pelosi while campaigning last year.

Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., who was a freshman in 2007, said Pelosi took this pragmatic route back then, beginning with a series of proposals that were the centerpiece of the 2006 midterm elections.

"When we first got here, she had the 'Six for '06.' So there was a very specific legislative agenda," Welch said. "They were modest, but they had meaning."

Pelosi left the most ambitious proposals for universal health coverage and reducing carbon emissions to committee chairmen, who tinkered around the edges of ideas that would come to the fore in 2009 and 2010, such as the Affordable Care Act.

Pelosi outlines a path to victory for House Democrats in 2020 — and guarantees it

The Progressive Caucus, which had been Pelosi's base of support in her climb up the leadership ladder last decade, had implicit trust in the new speaker.

Plus, the caucus's leaders at the time — such as former Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, 81, first elected in 1992 — were mostly California contemporaries of Pelosi, now 79.

Today's progressive leaders, Reps. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Mark Pocan, D-Wis., are more than two decades Pelosi's junior. Neither were in Congress during her first reign last decade.

And President Donald Trump has fundamentally changed the dynamics, with this younger generation seeing an existential clash with someone who does not play by the old rules.

"It's a profoundly different situation now," Welch said. "As bad as it was with Bush and the war and the energy of the Democrats, there was a sense that there was a role for government. That's under assault now."

One similarity between 2007 and 2019 is that Pelosi does not communicate her long-term vision particularly well to rank-and-file Democrats. Back then, Murphy said, Pelosi was not "explicit" in explaining her long-game approach of being cautious and then going big.

If her current approach produces another big win in 2020, today's Democrats might get a clearer vision of what comes next.

“I remember once we got to 2009 she was very explicit in framing what we’re going to get done — here’s what we’re going to do together,” Murphy recalled.