All right, if we must, let's talk about Nancy Pelosi. She is in the unenviable position of being both the perfect target for the lower forms of algae who comprise the Republican base and the people who pander to them, as well as being one of the Democrats' most formidable fundraisers and (perhaps) the greatest Democratic legislative leader since Sam Rayburn and Lyndon Johnson. Texans, as the traitor R.E. Lee once said, always move them.

So there is more than a little talk of replacing her as a potential Speaker if her party retakes the majority in the House in November. But we must have some parameters for our discussion, so here they are:

1) This is not an excuse to re-litigate the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries. Get over yourselves.

2) "We need new blood" is not, in and of itself, dispositive, in that it's one of those things on which Democrats tie themselves in knots while Republicans are perfectly willing to leave the Senate Judiciary Committee in the hands of Chuck Grassley, who is 236 years old.

3) We have to have a good-faith stipulation of Pelosi's not inconsiderable accomplishments.

For example, not a single Democratic member of the House voted for any of the schemes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, nor for the ludicrous tax package that the president* signed into law. Red state, blue state—in the House, it didn't matter, because Nancy Pelosi held her caucus together. That takes a kind of otherworldly political skill, considering that Chuck Schumer is forever calculating which of his senators he can afford to lose while waiting patiently for Susan Collins to sell someone out again.

Pelosi's performance since Camp Runamuck opened for business not only has been a masterclass in how to manage the limited power of a legislative minority, but also it has given all Democratic House candidates, both incumbents and non-incumbents, a consistent platform on which to run. As Speaker, let us recall, she helped shepherd through the most significant social program passed by Congress since Medicare and Medicaid, and then, as minority leader, she held her caucus unanimous in its support.

She is not incorrect to point out that a lot of the criticism aimed at her is both ageist and sexist, and that's where a lot of this new blood business comes in. Pelosi can fairly be criticized for not grooming young leadership to succeed her, but, you'll have to forgive her, she was busy trying to keep the Republicans from selling off the Grand Canyon to Exxon, and from turning Social Security into a Keno parlor. I would point out, however, that the problem of new leadership is solving itself, both in elections to the House and in the election of state legislators around the country.

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If Pelosi had allowed her caucus in the House to split on the ACA or on tax-cuts, a lot of those Democrats would have had a harder push in their elections. I would argue, for example, that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has had an easier time selling Medicare For All because the ACA was still largely intact—unless you're one of those heighten-the-contradictions dopes who would prefer to have the whole system fail, and to have people sicken and die while you build something else from the bottom up that no Republican ever would approve.

No, if you're going to convince me on Nancy Pelosi, you're going to have to come up with a better argument than the fact that she's old. This is a pivot point in history. Who are the alternatives? Tim Ryan? Seth Moulton? If you want to see all hell break loose in the Democratic caucus, put a white male into the Speakership after showing Pelosi the door. I heard someone mention Hakeem Jeffries of New York, whom I find intriguing, but the fact remains that a new Democratic majority is going to have to be the primary brake on a renegade presidency on every issue from healthcare, to congressional oversight, to a possible impeachment. I know who I want whipping votes if the latter comes to pass.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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