‘He’s not going to be president,’ Pelosi said of Mitt Romney. | John Shinkle/POLITICO Pelosi: GOP knows Mitt can't win

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday launched political grenades at Mitt Romney, arguing that Republicans haven’t coalesced behind the GOP frontrunner because they don’t believe he can beat President Barack Obama in November.

The House’s top Democrat repeatedly jabbed at the former Massachusetts governor during an hour-long interview hosted by POLITICO and taunted the GOP for a slate of presidential contenders that she said was “not exactly what you would call the first string of the Republican Party.”


“If the far right thought that Romney could win, they might be more enthusiastic about him,” Pelosi told POLITICO’s Mike Allen during Tuesday’s Playbook Breakfast. “But they question what he stands for and they don’t think he’s going to win. So what’s the sell? I’m not sure he knows what he stands for, and that makes it harder too.”

“I don’t know who knows him,” she added of Romney. “Does he know him?”

When asked about Romney’s vow to veto the DREAM Act if he were president, Pelosi said that showed he lacked an “understanding” of policies that would not only help young illegal immigrants but bolster the United States’s competitiveness in a global economy.

“He’s not going to be president,” Pelosi said. “But I think it’s indicative of a hard line that doesn’t seem consistent with who he was as governor.”

And though she remains one of the most prominent congressional figures, Pelosi said she has no problem with Obama running against a so-called “do-nothing” Congress as he campaigns to keep the White House in 2012.

“This is a Congress that has done such a disservice to our country,” Pelosi said. “Bless their hearts. They do what they believe, these Republicans. They do what they believe. And they do not believe in a government that has any role in clean air, clean water, food safety, public safety, public health, public education, Medicare, Medicaid.”

Pelosi, the first female House speaker in history, struck an optimistic tone as she outlined her strategy this year for Democrats to win in November and for her to take back the speaker’s gavel. She mapped out six states that she said would be critical to win the 25 districts needed for Democrats to regain control of the House – Illinois, New York, California, Texas, Florida and Arizona – and set an even higher bar of 35 seats.

She said Democrats have targeted about 75 districts so far and would have to play in at least 50 of them to have a shot at winning back 25 seats. Pelosi also touted female congressional candidates such as Tammy Duckworth, a former assistant secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs who is running for Congress in Illinois, and former Orlando police chief Val Demings, who is trying to unseat Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.).

Ultimately, it didn’t matter which Republican was at the top of the ticket for House Democrats, according to Pelosi.

“For us, this cast of characters, it’s not about them,” Pelosi said “It’s about President Obama, how well he will do and our candidates — how they compare and contrast to the candidates that they’re running against.”