pelosi queen 1Nancy Pelosi is planning a four-day extravaganza hailing her ascension to the position of House Speaker on January 4, 2007.

The festivities are on a scale usually associated with presidential inaugurations …. or perhaps coronations. It should be quite the celebration.

Among other things she will dine at the Italian Embassy as Tony Bennett sings “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”

Rumor has it that it’s more than just a 4-day party. It’s a power grab or at the very least image reshaping.

Via The Washington Post

Pelosi is grabbing the moment to present herself as the new face of the Democratic Party and to restore the party’s image as one hospitable to ethnic minorities, families, religion, the working class and women.

“This is important strategic repositioning,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, who teaches political communication and rhetoric at the University of Pennsylvania. “Essentially, she’s trying to embody the Democratic Party that she would like to offer the nation in 2008.”

In her meticulous selection of events and venues during a week when she expects to attract media attention from as far away as Australia, Pelosi is clearly trying to bury the label “San Francisco liberal” ……

Ahhh, so she wants the little people to know that she hasn’t forgotten them.

She is planning events that will highlight select parts of her personal life while muting her liberal voting record and ideology. “She’s showing all the ways she shares other women’s lives,” said Celinda Lake, a Democratic strategist.

A communications consultant for entertainers and Democratic politicians, Ken Sunshine, says Pelosi is ‘right on’. Far out!

Queen Nancy, whoops, House Speaker-elect Nancy grew up in Baltimore as the daughter of the mayor. Her brother was also mayor. She will return to Baltimore on January 2nd to have a street named after her. Albermarle Street will be renamed “Via Nancy D’Alesandro Pelosi.”

The celebrations will end on January 5th when Nancy will hold what she is calling the “People’s House” open house at the Cannon House Office Building. But it will be less welcoming than it sounds … the event is by invitation only. The People’s House! Why do socialists use The People when naming things.

Whatever her purpose in this elaborate, in-your-face celebration, she is certainly grabbing the spotlight. She will be queen for a few days and then ascend to her position as Speaker of the House.

I hope she will remember that being Speaker of the House is not, or should not be, about HER and her power and her position. Hopefully, she will stop with the narcisim and start with getting about the business of ‘the people’.

Kim Priestap calls it hubris, but doesn’t think that word goes far enough. (She also likened it to a coronation!).

The Daily Brief is working on what to call the affair.

(My apologies to Queen Elizabeth I, one of my favorite monarchs, for dressing Pelosi in one of her finer gown!)