Democrat Rep Nancy Pelosi strikes deal with party rebels to reclaim role as Speaker

Democrat Representative Nancy Pelosi has struck a deal with some of her party rebels intent on denying her the House speakership, paving the way for her to reclaim the position she lost eight years ago.

The California Democrat on Wednesday, December 12, agreed to limit her time as Speaker to four years at most, in return, a critical number of lawmakers who vowed to oppose Pelosi, have said they will support her in a crucial January 3, 2019, House floor vote, reports Politico.

The proposal also limits the time her two deputies, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer and Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn, can stay in their posts, although those changes will likely have to be ratified by the full caucus.

"Over the summer, I made it clear that I see myself as a bridge to the next generation of leaders, a recognition of my continuing responsibility to mentor and advance new Members into positions of power and responsibility in the House Democratic Caucus," Pelosi said in a statement announcing the agreement on Wednesday.

The accord is a major triumph for Pelosi, who has spent the past several weeks engaged in a full-court lobbying campaign to line up the remaining votes she needed to clinch the speakership.

Following her announcement seven of Pelosi‘s critics released a joint statement endorsing her for speaker.

"We wish to thank Nancy Pelosi for her willingness to work with us to reach this agreement," the lawmakers wrote.

"We are proud that our agreement will make lasting institutional change that will strengthen our caucus and will help develop the next generation of Democratic leaders. We will support and vote for Nancy Pelosi for Speaker of the House in the 116th Congress."

The proposal is retroactive, meaning Pelosi would be entering her third term in 2019. If she did go on to win a fourth term in 2021 with the support of two-thirds of the caucus, it would have to be her last, reports CNN.

Pelosi, along with Hoyer and Clyburn, served for two terms in leadership when Democrats controlled the House from from 2007-2011.

Pelosi announced the incoming Democratic caucus chairman Hakeem Jeffries and the incoming House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern plan to bring it up for a vote in caucus on February 15, 2019.

On November 28, Democrats voted overwhelmingly to nominate Pelosi as the next House Speaker in the secret-ballot vote 203-32, with three lawmakers leaving the ballot blank.

A group of rebel Democrats said that they would oppose Representative Nancy Pelosi's bid for House speaker when the new Congress convenes in January 2019, the media reported.

They demanded that she step aside or declare when she would do so. But this was something she had earlier refused to do because it would weaken the defensive wall that she stands for against Donald Trump.

In a letter to their colleagues, the group declared that "the time has come for new leadership", and said they would vote accordingly,” reported The New York Times.

"We are thankful to Pelosi for her years of service to our country and our caucus," they wrote, calling her "a historic figure whose leadership has been instrumental to some of our party's most important legislative achievements".

But the group said Democrats had won this month's midterm elections on a "message of change".

"Our majority came on the backs of candidates who said that they would support new leadership because voters in hard won districts, and across the country, want to see real change in Washington.

"We promised to change the status quo, and we intend to deliver on that promise."

Pelosi, 78, has expressed complete confidence that she will retake the speaker's gavel in January - eight years after she lost it following massive Republican gains in the 2010 midterms and 16 years after she was first elevated to the top Democratic leadership post in the House, The Washington Post reported.

She is the only speaker candidate who has declared ahead of a party nominating vote on November 28, with a vote of the full House on January 3, 2019.

Her allies stated that the term-limit deal was not struck out of necessity, but was done to secure a majority vote in January to promote unity amongst the party members.

The deal was the result of multiple weeks of bargaining and vote counting. This frenzy is a foreshadowing of what the future for Nancy Pelosi as the speaker of the Democratic majority will look like owing to the diverse and ideologically different party members, including those who campaigned against her appointment.

Some Democrats believe that the deal was distracting the party from planning an agenda for the next Congress and to oppose Donald Trump.

“I understand that we want new blood, but there are ways of doing it without term-limiting people. And I don’t think that Nancy or anybody else should say when they intend to leave because then they’re immediately a lame duck” said Representative Eliot L Engel of New York in The New York Times.

(with inputs from IANS and The New York Times)