Pelosi

This is funny. Rob, Joe and I were discussing this on Saturday - that incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should be presenting the real her to the public, the little Italian-American girl from Baltimore who done good. And now she is.

From the LA Times:

Pelosi is planning a series of events to commemorate her swearing-in as the senior official in the House, second in the line of succession. The events in the first week of January will try to plant Pelosi's version of her life story in the national consciousness, showing her as an Italian American and devout Catholic from Baltimore, who married her college sweetheart, raised five children, ran for Congress in middle-age and shattered a Washington gender barrier days before her sixth grandchild was born.

The impending inauguration kicks off the contest over who will define Nancy Pelosi: Republicans who see her as a reckless liberal, or Pelosi herself, who wants to be seen as an American Everywoman, leading her party on a steady course to the center.

Just as good, Pelosi understands the need for a good, hard-nosed message team.

Having spent years watching her party outmaneuvered in the message wars, Pelosi is soliciting advice from former Clinton White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry, one of the Democrats' most respected communication strategists.

Plans are also afloat to move the main communications operation from the speaker's office to incoming Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois. He would handle party message and rapid response.

McCurry has the Clinton messaging know-how, and Rahm is a bulldog. This is good, very good.