There's a report coming out by none other than FOX saying that some defeated Democrats from the House plan to send a letter asking for Pelosi to step aside. From a House Democratic Source: FOX has obtained a letter being penned by defeated
November 9, 2010

There's a report coming out by none other than FOX saying that some defeated Democrats from the House plan to send a letter asking for Pelosi to step aside.

From a House Democratic Source:

FOX has obtained a letter being penned by defeated House Democrats that implores House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to step aside.

The letter is now circulating Capitol Hill and has not yet been sent to the Speaker. FOX has obtained draft language of the letter. In the draft of the letter, the members say that they were "victimized by a national wave of resentment toward Democrats, a wave that ensnared you along with us."

The letter goes on to say "Madam Speaker, fairly or unfairly, Republicans made you the face of the resentment and disagreement in our races. While we commend your years of service to our party and your leadership through many tough times, we respectfully ask that you step aside as the top Democrat in the House."

The letter says that the defeated members "fear that Republicans will further demonize you, and in so doing, they will scare potential candidates out. The prospect of having to run against their own party leadership, in addition to their Republican opponent is simply too daunting." The lawmakers also say that "one mark of a strong leader is the ability to discern when it is time to pass the baton" and calls this a "dark hour."

The letter closes asking Pelosi to step aside.

Full text of the letter below. Unclear who exactly will sign it and when it will go to the Speaker.

Nobody has seen the letter so far, but if it is real, I think you can guess who would actually sign it. Anti-Pelosi Blue Dogs like Bobby Bright, who we helped to get defeated. (And for good reason.) It's typical for ConservaDems to attack anything Progressive, so it wouldn't shock me, but Josh Marshall is reporting that this letter could be a "phantom."

So what about that secret Pelosi letter? The one being circulated among defeated members of the Democratic caucus asking Pelosi not to run? The one obtained by Fox News?

I just spoke to a senior staffer in the office of one of those defeated Democrats. And this is a member who had been quite critical of Speaker Pelosi for some time. No one's sent or shown the letter to them. They've heard about it from reporters. But not from any other congressional offices.

Time will tell if this letter is real -- but if it isn't, I think FOX should take a big hit for it. Maybe even Howard Kurtz will come out and scold them. Ha! Don't you love how the Republicans are trying to even tell the Democratic Party who they should have as a minority leader?

Say what you want, Pelosi knows how to play the game in the House and right now we need someone there who has the nerve to stop them from trying to destroy Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The NY Times attacked Pelosi in an editorial saying she should leave. They say she was a great speaker for four years, but her time has come and gone. Do we actually want someone like Steny Hoyer to to take her place? No way.

Steve Benen makes a good case for keeping her on.

But there's one detail the editorial neglected to mention: Pelosi has already been House Minority Leader, and she proved herself pretty good at it. In fact, she was Minority Leader in 2006 -- the cycle Democrats took back the House majority.

If the post isn't "a good match for her abilities," why did she thrive in the position before?

It is true that she's been demonized by the right ever since she took over for the Dems in the House, but we need someone in there who will not stand by and let the Tea Party fanatics run rampant. And let's remember, whoever fills the slot will be savagely smeared. It's the Conservative way and they have the media structure to do it.

Remember how Republicans like Eric Cantor acted when they got whipped in the 2006 and 2008 elections? They didn't believe they had to compromise for the sake of the country or change course because Americans voted them out, but instead moved as far to the right as they could. They knew that a bad economy would help them be able to weasel out of taking any sort of responsibility on the damage they have done.

Digby writes:

With the willing acquiescence of the establishment and the support of the billionaire plutocrats, they not only held the line, they doubled down and went even more radical right before our very eyes. And dues to a number of factors, some not entirely in their control, the Democrats lost to them.

I would never advocate blindly following the tactics of the TeaGOP. But they are ahead of the Democrats in figuring out how to navigate this new political landscape (which they pretty much invented.) They don't fool themselves that there's consensus, they accept that we are polarized and that there will be frequent turnovers of power. And they plan accordingly.

Whether in the minority or the majority, they always work to move the country to the right. And by failing to understand the game they are playing, the Democrats end up moving with them. That's how Bob Dole's health care plan from 1996 became a communist takeover of the health care system in 2010.

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