House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi may have newfound leverage during the fiscal cliff talks, a turnabout for the California Democrat who was marginalized in the other major budget and spending deals this Congress.

With House Republicans acknowledging they have little hope of passing a fiscal cliff deal with just the votes of their own conference, Democrats will likely prove crucial to House passage.

Democrats already appear to be in good position to wrangle some tax hikes out of Republicans as part of any budget agreement to at least extend middle-class tax cuts and avoid the across-the-board discretionary spending cuts scheduled to kick in Jan. 1. But what they give in return on entitlements could depend in large part on whether the former speaker wants to persuade House Democrats to go along with it.

“House Democrats will act as partners in an effort to reach an agreement,” Pelosi told reporters last week. “We are open to a grand bargain, and however we get to the place where we can have significant deficit reduction.”

She noted that polls show Americans support President Barack Obama’s push to allow tax rates on the highest income to rise, saying, “I think that is where a good deal of leverage is in these negotiations.”