Please No! Not Smart Democrats!

There is a rumbling in the Democrat party for the removal and replacement of Nancy Pelosi.

Democrats have always been like communists. The only way to resign as leader in the Soviet Union or China was to die. In the United States, they occasionally got voted out - Tom Foley and Tom Daschle come to mind - but removal by the faithful or resignation simply doesn't happen.

But Nancy Pelosi has been so very bad as House Minority leader that there are rumblings of a coup.

It is not ideology, however, that makes many Democrats yearn for Hoyer. The congressman who whispered about a coup in Hoyer's ear is much closer to Pelosi ideologically. He and other Democrats are simply appalled by Pelosi's image as a party leader. While she got by delivering 60-second speeches as an ordinary congresswoman, she seems distracted and lost in making four-minute Democratic closing arguments on a bill.

Pelosi neither sets an agenda nor offers inspiring messages, but she cannot be held wholly responsible for the superficial quality of Democratic rhetoric from the House floor. Debate on bills ordinarily is led by the senior committee member, who is bound by cliches and stereotypes. One of the best and longest lasting of Newt Gingrich's reforms when he became House speaker in 1995 was to institute term limits for Republican committee heads. The Democrats keep their leaders as long as they live.