The Nancy Pelosi song

Good to see Gail Collins of The New York Times give Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi her due:

Let us sing a song about the wonderfulness of Nancy Pelosi. What a run she’s been on. This week---with the big financial reform package edging toward completion, and the House approving a major campaign finance reform bill---was a reminder of what an incredibly productive speaker she’s become...She is the most powerful woman in the country, the most fearless person on Capitol Hill and on track to be one of the most productive speakers in history.

As Collins points out, the Republicans do what they can to demonize her: "The Republicans have turned Pelosi into the Demon Grandmother---in ads, a satanic figure in the flames of deficit spending, or a 50-foot monster smashing houses with her big-government feet."

Four years ago, Tim Redmond of the Bay Guardian showed the left's disdain for Pelosi because she refused to impeach President Bush and allegedly gave away the Presidio to developers: "Pelosi is a terrible politician. She's venal, driven by campaign money, and has no real agenda except power. She's the one who privatized the Presidio, potentially paving the way for the privatization of millions of acres of national parkland."

But by the time the bill making the Presidio a national park emerged, Pelosi was dealing with a Republican Congress, which was naturally reluctant to authorize an expensive national park for liberal San Francisco. Hence, making the park essentially self-sustaining within 15 years of its founding seemed like a reasonable approach at the time, and it still does.