Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s power in Washington is the subject of her new book, “The Art of Power: My Story as America’s First Woman Speaker of the House.” According to Pelosi’s publicist, she is “the most powerful woman in American political history.”
According to her publicist, Pelosi transformed herself “from housewife to House speaker” to become “a master legislator, a key partner to presidents, and the most visible leader of the Trump resistance.”
Pelosi might have been “a key partner” to Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, but President Biden likely has a different view.
At times, “The Art of Power” seems to be Pelosi’s advertisement that she should be the next U.S. ambassador to China in a possible Harris-Walz administration. Pelosi’s selective vision about U.S.-China relations could prove problematic.
In her book, Pelosi writes: “For a decade, both Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush had extended a trade policy known as most-favored-nation status to the Chinese government.” She implies that the China policy of Reagan and George H.W. Bush “set the stage for the challenges and threats that we face from the Chinese government today.”
Readers of “The Art of Power” must understand that Pelosi has a powerful incentive to blame Republicans for China’s economic and political rise while ignoring the role played by Democrats.
Like Reagan and Bush before him, President Clinton also extended most-favored-nation status to China. Clinton allowed China to enter the World Trade Organization. Clinton gave China Permanent Normal Trade Relations. About Clinton de-linking U.S.-China trade with Beijing’s progress on human rights, Pelosi says “it was a tremendous disappointment.”
As a possible ambassador to China, Pelosi wants a possible President Kamala Harris to know that she would stand her ground on Beijing’s dismal human rights abuses. Pelosi wants Beijing to know she means business.
If Pelosi can push Biden out of the White House, Chinese President Xi Jinping had better watch his step if Pelosi moves into the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. It is hoped Pelosi will never take her act to Beijing.
Pelosi is more a politician than a diplomat. In her book, she says harsh things about former GOP House Speakers Newt Gingrich and Kevin McCarthy, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, and former presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump. She calls Bush’s war in Iraq “the largest destabilizing mistake in recent American history.” Still, she resisted impeachment hearings for Bush.
Pelosi’s undiplomatic view of Trump can be summarized by her index listings under his name: “childishness,” “disrespect for America,” “disrespect for U.S. military,” “greed of,” “impeachment (2019),” “impeachment 2021,” “January 6th at U.S. Capitol,” “listening in to private meetings,” “mental health of,” “personality of,” and “truth and Trump,” among others. If Trump is re-elected, I predict they will have strong differences on policies.
Pelosi especially dislikes Trump’s greed. She nobly entered politics, according to her publicist, “for the children and to fight HIV/AIDS.” Trump, she writes, “is a manifestation of a larger problem in our political life, one that has been slowly metastasizing: greed.”
Pelosi writes that “Trump has a greed for power.” She has seen, she says, “how greed … drove our China policy.” Greed, she writes, caused the 2008 financial crisis. Greed, Pelosi says, by “insurance companies and Big Pharma … created a healthcare and an economic crisis for millions of Americans.” Finally, she writes, Trump’s greed caused “rioters” to attack the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
Pelosi, she writes about herself, stands for “goodness.” She adds, “My focus is on what matters: putting people — especially our children — over politics.”
Interestingly, Pelosi fails to mention her husband’s stock trades. She says she knows nothing about her husband’s stock trades. In 2021, she defended House lawmakers trading stocks. It’s a free market, she said. Sounds like greed, right?
If you read “The Art of Power,” you will realize that Pelosi is, according to herself, “Goodness.” Greed, which she personifies as Trump, is foreign and ugly to her and her “wonderful” and rich husband.
Pelosi dedicates the book to her husband, who, according to the Associated Press, has millions of dollars in high-tech stocks. It pays to have a wife who entered politics for “the children” rather than greed, right?
