# Nancy Pelosi, first woman to serve as US House speaker, to retire from Congress **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 6, 2025, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-pelosi-first-woman-to-serve-as-us-house-speaker-to-retire-from-congress/1024627 "2025-11-06T14:28:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-pelosi-first-woman-to-serve-as-us-house-speaker-to-retire-from-congress/1024627/21 "2025-11-06T18:06:33Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Other candidates mentioned are Pelosi’s daughter, Christine Pelosi Oh, Christ, seriously? No more fucking blood dynasties. Argh! ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-pelosi-first-woman-to-serve-as-us-house-speaker-to-retire-from-congress/1024627/22 "2025-11-06T18:14:13Z")
I know it’s way early, but I’d say Scott Wiener is definitely the front runner. He has been a state senator for San Francisco for almost ten years, and has been prominent in local politics for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Allecher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a6a055/32.png) [@Allecher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Allecher)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-pelosi-first-woman-to-serve-as-us-house-speaker-to-retire-from-congress/1024627/23 "2025-11-06T20:28:51Z")
Can we please make this the norm? In my field once you hit 60 or so you move into a mentoring role to help the 40s and 50s get experience. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2025, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-pelosi-first-woman-to-serve-as-us-house-speaker-to-retire-from-congress/1024627/24 "2025-11-07T22:31:27Z")
The Votemaster today raised the question, is she the most powerful woman in US history? They didn’t answer the question, but made a good case for it. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2025, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-pelosi-first-woman-to-serve-as-us-house-speaker-to-retire-from-congress/1024627/25 "2025-11-07T22:58:29Z")
Did I miss something? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2025, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-pelosi-first-woman-to-serve-as-us-house-speaker-to-retire-from-congress/1024627/26 "2025-11-07T23:04:35Z")
But if you asked random passersby, “What is the main achievement of Nancy Pelosi?”, they’d have a hard time answering. They would know that she’d been in Congress for many years, but they probably couldn’t name a single major accomplishment, other than just….being in there a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2025, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-pelosi-first-woman-to-serve-as-us-house-speaker-to-retire-from-congress/1024627/27 "2025-11-07T23:32:18Z")
I can’t name a thing she did and I pay (pretty close) attention. I believe she was smart and savvy but I never, ever saw her as a liberal. Republican lite is about the best I can say. I’m glad she is leaving. Should’ve been years ago but better late than never. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2025, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-pelosi-first-woman-to-serve-as-us-house-speaker-to-retire-from-congress/1024627/28 "2025-11-08T00:13:58Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > I never, ever saw her as a liberal. Republican lite is about the best I can say. Nah, I disagree. She was a founding member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus back in 1991, with the likes of Ron Dellums, Maxine Waters and Bernie Sanders. She resigned from it when she became Minority Leader in 2003, same as Hakeem Jeffries did in 2023 under the same circumstance and had to play the negotiator-in-the-middle role. By San Francisco standards she’s a moderate and as a monster fundraiser, probably pretty blandly big-money corporatist. She’s hardly the bomb-throwing communist a lot of Republicans seem to demonize her as. But still by most standards she’s reasonably liberal, not really Republican-lite. Unless you consider the likes of other blandly corporatist but socially liberal Dems like Kamala Harris, Diane Feinstein or Hilary Clinton as Republican-lite. Which I know a lot of more modern young progressives do 😀, but too me that’s about as a knee-jerk as the right calling her a commie. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2025, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-pelosi-first-woman-to-serve-as-us-house-speaker-to-retire-from-congress/1024627/29 "2025-11-08T00:21:44Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > She was a founding member of Congressional Progressive Caucus back in 1991 Bwahahaha! Progressive? In name only. She was/is hostile to liberal progressives. Maybe she had a moment 35+ years ago but that got sidelined really quickly. North Korea is the DPRK. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. A name does not make it so. I doubt Pelosi was ever a progressive but, even if she once was, she was light years away from it most of her career. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2025, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-pelosi-first-woman-to-serve-as-us-house-speaker-to-retire-from-congress/1024627/30 "2025-11-08T00:50:32Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > By San Francisco standards she’s a moderate and as a monster fundraiser, probably pretty blandly big-money corporatist. She’s hardly the bomb-throwing communist a lot of Republicans seem to demonize her as. But still by most standards she’s reasonably liberal, not really Republican-lite. Unless you consider the likes of other blandly corporatist but socially liberal Dems like Kamala Harris, Diane Feinstein or Hilary Clinton as Republican-lite. > > Which I know a lot of more modern young progressives do 😀, but too me that’s about as a knee-jerk as the right calling her a commie. I already see AOC starting to suffer the same fate, and my guess is that by the end of his term it will happen to Mamdani to. The second a progressive stops critiquing power and start wielding it, they are branded basically conservative. Pelosi was definitely not a “borderline Republican”. She may have become part of the Democratic establishment over the course of her career, but she also pushed that same establishment to the left. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2025, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-pelosi-first-woman-to-serve-as-us-house-speaker-to-retire-from-congress/1024627/31 "2025-11-08T17:12:12Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > Pelosi was definitely not a “borderline Republican”. She may have become part of the Democratic establishment over the course of her career, but she also pushed that same establishment to the left. I think she embraced Clinton’s [“Third Way”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way) ideology. Basically a republican who is ok with gay people and abortion and women and usually labelled as centrist. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2025, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-pelosi-first-woman-to-serve-as-us-house-speaker-to-retire-from-congress/1024627/32 "2025-11-08T17:49:35Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Basically a republican who is ok with gay people and abortion and women and usually labelled as centrist. In other words, not at all Republican? If you’re going to criticize her for being too right, you can say that she’s a Democrat who’s too corporatist. Which is a valid criticism, but really, most successful politicians, of any party, in any nation, are too corporatist. And if we have to choose between a corporatist who’s in favor of civil rights, rule of law, and democracy, and a corporatist who’s opposed to all of those things, the choice is clear. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2025, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-pelosi-first-woman-to-serve-as-us-house-speaker-to-retire-from-congress/1024627/33 "2025-11-08T17:56:26Z")
Well…there are 90’s republicans and today’s republicans. They are not the same thing and without a doubt Pelosi is better than any of today’s republicans. But I am not sure there was much to distinguish her from them back in the 90s except maybe her stance on gay people and abortion. That’s a bit better but not a lot and not worthy of special praise for fighting the good fight I don’t think. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2025, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-pelosi-first-woman-to-serve-as-us-house-speaker-to-retire-from-congress/1024627/34 "2025-11-08T17:58:45Z")
We wouldn’t have had the ACA at all without her. She was critical in getting Obama’s legislative crown jewel passed. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2025, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-pelosi-first-woman-to-serve-as-us-house-speaker-to-retire-from-congress/1024627/35 "2025-11-08T18:01:14Z")
I was just going to post that. She could definitely control her caucus and manage the opposition. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2025, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-pelosi-first-woman-to-serve-as-us-house-speaker-to-retire-from-congress/1024627/36 "2025-11-08T19:08:18Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > I think she embraced Clinton’s [“Third Way”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way) ideology. Basically a republican who is ok with gay people and abortion and women and usually labelled as centrist. The Clinton who signed DOMA into law? That’s not OK. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2025, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-pelosi-first-woman-to-serve-as-us-house-speaker-to-retire-from-congress/1024627/37 "2025-11-08T19:21:18Z")
Pelosi never supported DOMA. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2025, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-pelosi-first-woman-to-serve-as-us-house-speaker-to-retire-from-congress/1024627/38 "2025-11-08T19:22:13Z")
Good for her! I thought as much. That makes Clinton a poor comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2025, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-pelosi-first-woman-to-serve-as-us-house-speaker-to-retire-from-congress/1024627/39 "2025-11-08T19:24:34Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > That makes Clinton a poor comparison. Being a “Third Way” supporter does not mean someone got behind everything. Indeed, I would say DOMA had nothing to do with Third Way whatsoever. These ideologies do not cover all possible political questions. So yeah, the comparison is apt. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2025, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-pelosi-first-woman-to-serve-as-us-house-speaker-to-retire-from-congress/1024627/40 "2025-11-08T19:25:42Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Being a “Third Way” supporter does not mean someone got behind everything. It would be nice if you had a cite to show Pelosi was a supporter of this ideology. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-pelosi-first-woman-to-serve-as-us-house-speaker-to-retire-from-congress/1024627.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nancy-pelosi-first-woman-to-serve-as-us-house-speaker-to-retire-from-congress/1024627.md?page=3)