Partying with Pelosi at the Delancey Street Foundation

My friend and colleague Katie Kadarauch knows people. Her friend, the vibrant octogenarian Eileen Caplan, has been politically active most of her life. She has worked for Ted Kennedy and was a personal friend of Harvey Milk, among other things. She had been invited to Nancy Pelosi's New Year's party, this year held at the Delancey Street Foundation, a prisoner rehabilitation center on the Embarcadero, south of the Ferry Building in downtown San Francisco. Eileen had room for two guests and invited us to join her and her friends at Pelosi's shindig. We said YES.

These parties are not fundraisers or political action events, they are thank yous to all of the supporters of the political figure in question. In this case, it was a San Francisco gathering of political elites, union members and bosses, fundraisers, PACs, and oglers such as myself and Katie. It lasted a couple of hours, plenty of time to enjoy some hors d'oeuvres and wine, mingle, network, lend half an ear to preliminary speechifying and wait for the big moment, Pelosi herself. Other SF luminaries at the party included San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, California Democratic Party Chair John Burton, and California State Senator Mark Leno.

Who is Nancy Pelosi? Most people have heard of her at this point. She is currently Speaker of the House of Representatives, gaining that post in 2007. She has represented the 8th Congressional District of Calfornia, which is most of the city of San Francisco, since 1987. She was elected the House Minority Whip in 2001, the first woman in this post. In 2002 she was elected to House Minority Leader, also a first for a woman. In 2007 she became the first female Speaker of the House, which gives her the highest political rank of any female in American history, third in line for the presidency should something happen to both Obama and Biden.

She's among the richest members of Congress, holding SF real estate, a Napa Valley vineyard, and a large portfolio of stock investments. She lives in the Pacific Heights neighborhood in San Francisco. She was born in Baltimore into the D'Alesandro family, a political force in Maryland, so she is no stranger to the halls of power. As can be expected, she is often vilified by the Right as a "San Francisco liberal", the worst of insults to many thin-skinned conservatives. She's often criticized by the Left as well, even though she was a founding member of the House Progressive Caucus. Cindy Sheehan ran an unsuccessful primary campaign against her in 2008 because of Pelosi's repeated statements that the possible impeachment of President George W. Bush for misleading Congress about Iraq's WMD's and warrantless wiretapping of Americans was "off the table".

As leader of the Democrats in the House and as a representative of her district's avowedly liberal base, Pelosi treads a tricky path. Her past voting record includes opposition to the Gulf War in 1991, the Iraq Resolution in 2002 which authorized Bush to invade Iraq, and opposition to the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. She's also voted for the No Child Left Behind Act and opposes freeing travel restrictions of Americans wanting to visit Cuba. Most of the country sees her as a screaming liberal, but it's often forgotten that in 1987 when she was elected to Congress, the Democratic primary saw her running against a more progressive candidate.

Whatever your feelings are for her, she's a very very powerful woman, and a lot of people adore her in San Francisco. The short party was well-attended by mostly well-dressed SF folks, young and old eying each other's name tags and constantly glancing around the room for someone bigger. There's a gleam coming off people at events like this, an unspoken acknowledgment that this many influential people can lead to big scores on the networking card. Lots of chatter and smiles, lots of TV cameras, lots of security detail, although no pat-down to get in. When Pelosi entered the party I didn't see her directly at first. She was surrounded by an amoebic mass of well-wishers, Secret Service, and cameras. The blob oozed its way toward the center platform, picking up threads and strands of people along the way. This lasted for another 30 minutes or so, capped by a short musical presentation by the San Francisco Boys Chorus to whom most folks lent half-an-ear and vigorous applause.

Mayor Newsom said a few words, Chairman Burton said a few more, and then the climax of the afternoon, Speaker Pelosi herself talked for about 8-10 minutes, mostly about the current health care situation. Tellingly, when she mentioned the public option she also talked about legislation that would do "what the public option was intended to do: Keep the insurance companies honest." As she talked I realized she was a master at this kind of appeasement, rallying the faithful that have supported her while craftily acknowledging the reality that things may turn out not so rosy. Most of the Important People were gathered near the central platform, off to one side in front so as to look out into the crowd and catch people's eyes and wave, which they did. Their smiles spoke volumes about victory, about influence, about power. I caught myself thinking that these folks had shaken an awful lot of hands at an awful lot of chicken dinners. Happily, Pelosi put in a plug at the end of her speech for funding and supporting the Arts, always a cause near and dear to my heart. I cheered lustily along with the rest of the crowd for this rather small, osprey-eyed woman who represents so much of the liberal cause.

Among the crowd were some former participants in the Delancey Street Foundation mingling with the suited and coiffed. They are beneficiaries of something that many on the Right think is a terrible mistake: Money and time spent to help those unable to help themselves, who find themselves in situations that prevent them from being productive members of society, whose choices have lead them astray. The Cheneys of the world would be appalled at such an endeavor, they would call it a waste of money and resources. But check out the success rate of Delancey, it's no joke. Sometimes it's best to help people by actually helping them.