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Book excerpt: Nancy Pelosi on “The Art of Power”
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In her new book, “The Art of Power: My Story as America’s First Woman Speaker of the House” (to be published by Simon & Schuster August 6), Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who served in the position for a total of eight years between 2007 and 2023, writes about the demands and responsibilities of the office. She also tells the story of key events during her Speakership, from the bank failure-fueled economic collapse of 2008, to the Insurrection that attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Read an excerpt below, and don’t miss Lesley Stahl’s interview with Nancy Pelosi on “CBS Sunday Morning” August 4!
“The Art of Power” by Nancy Pelosi
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Being Speaker of the House is probably the most challenging position in government. You have to address the same vast array of issues as the president (but lack the advantage of making appointments across the executive branch and proposing judicial nominees). The Speaker has a much smaller staff, and does not have the benefit of the bully pulpit. As opposed to leading just your political party, you are also responsible for leading the entire House of Representatives, 435 voting members and 6 non-voting delegates. Being Speaker is obviously also very different from being a member of Congress. As members of Congress, we most often act deductively: we subject ideas to hearings, town hall meetings with constituents, and other forms of public comment. Members have time to decide on and refine or amend a proposal as it passes through the committee process and reaches the House floor.
The speakership is different. It is both a uniquely powerful and an executive position that requires a combination of a policy background, strategic knowhow, and, above all, intuition. A successful Speaker can’t ever be surprised by anything. You must know what all the possibilities are, all of the time. Those possibilities include how each member of your caucus will vote, what you are willing to concede in negotiations with the Senate or the White House and what you are not, and what resonates with the American people and why. Every challenge you face requires a decision, and you’re not always given much time to make that decision. Anticipation is the order of the day. You must immediately be able to articulate your answers to the questions why, what, and how. You must demonstrate a plan, and you must act without hesitation. The minute you hesitate, your options are diminished. The longer you wait, the more your options are diminished. Everyone with an agenda will chip away at your delayed decision.
While a Speaker’s actions must be both intuitive and quick to succeed, that alone is not enough. The thinking that informs and supports a Speaker’s intuition must be strategic and respected. That is why I believe it is absolutely vital to maintain a constant level of member contact—you need to know what members are thinking. This contact benefits everyone in two ways: not only are you learning from your members, but when members see your investment in them, it gives them confidence in your knowledge and judgment, which is essential. The advice to trust your gut only works if your gut is informed from both the head and the heart.
For twenty years, the word that dominated my approach to and my work with my colleagues is “respect.” Our job title and our job description are one and the same: “representative.” On the Democratic side, we have deeply shared values and highly respected diversity, in terms of ethnicity, geography, generation, gender, gender identity, and sometimes even philosophy, and thus sometimes we differ. As I always say to the members, “Our diversity is our strength, our unity is our power.”
Excerpted from “The Art of Power: My Story as America’s First Woman Speaker of the House” by Nancy Pelosi. Copyright © 2024 by Nancy Pelosi. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.
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Sean “Diddy” Combs at same Brooklyn detention center that held R. Kelly, Sam Bankman-Fried, other high-profile inmates
A second judge refused to grant bail to Sean “Diddy” Combs on Wednesday and he could remain in federal custody at a Brooklyn detention center until his trial for sex trafficking charges. Combs joins other high-profile inmates, such as singer R. Kelly, fallen cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, rapper Ja Rule —even Al Sharpton served a brief stint— who were held at the same federal detention center.
Notorious for its horrible conditions —inmates won a $10 million class action settlement after enduring frigid conditions during an 8-day blackout in 2019— the waterfront industrial complex, MDC Brooklyn, houses 1,200 inmates.
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images
Violence and corruption have long plagued the facility; U.S. District Judge Gary R. Brown of the Eastern District of New York wrote the detention center had “dangerous, barbaric conditions” in a recent sentencing opinion. Two inmates were stabbed to death in recent months and several correction officers have been convicted for smuggling contraband and accepting bribes.
Combs joins a list of high-profile personalities that have landed at the MDC Brooklyn, partly because the city’s other federal detention center, MDC New York, closed in 2021, also due to horrible conditions. The disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in his cell there in 2019. “Numerous and serious” instances of misconduct among corrections staff gave Epstein the opportunity to kill himself, a subsequent federal watchdog investigation found.
Kelly sued the federal detention center in 2022 for wrongly putting him on suicide watch after his sentencing. Kelly sought $100 million because he said the detention center knew he wasn’t suicidal after he was convicted in 2021 for racketeering and violating the Mann Act, which bars transporting people across state lines for prostitution.
Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Former crypto billionaire Bankman-Fried survived on bread, water and sometimes peanut butter when he was in the MDC Brooklyn, his attorney said, because the detention center continued to serve him a “flesh diet” despite requests for vegan dishes.
Ja Rule stayed at the MDC Brooklyn for a brief time before being released after serving most of his two-year sentence for illegal gun possession. Most of his prison time was spent in a state prison in New York.
Sharpton served a 90-day sentence in 2001 and went on a hunger strike for protesting the U.S. Navy bombing of the island of Vieques, in Puerto Rico.
Combs was taken into custody on Monday and according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday he was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution.
His attorney Marc Agnifilo told CBS News, “It’s impossible to prepare for a trial from where he is,” after a first federal judge denied Combs bail on Tuesday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky agreed with prosecutors who argued the hip-hop mogul, who is accused of using his business empire as a criminal enterprise to conceal his alleged abuse of women, is a flight risk and poses an ongoing threat to the safety of the community.
Agnifilo said the part of the detention center where Combs is being held is “a very difficult place to be.”
contributed to this report.
