Pelosi 'Not Nervous At All' About Midterms
August 1, 2010— -- In an exclusive interview on "This Week with Christiane Amanpour," Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., struck a confident tone on the electoral prospects for Democrats this November, despite predictions by many, including at least one top White House official, that Democrats could lose control of the House.
"I'm not nervous at all," Pelosi said. "I never take anything for granted. And our agenda now is ... we're not going back to the failed policies of the Bush administration. We're going forward," she said.
"So what does it make you feel then, when the president's own spokesman said that you might lose the majority?" Amanpour asked her.
"With all due respect," Pelosi shot back, "I don't spend a whole lot of time thinking about what the president's employees say about one thing or another."
"So we feel very confident about where we are," the speaker said, "whether that's well known to that gentleman or not," she said, referring to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.
Taking a step back, Amanpour asked Pelosi about the big-picture issue of deep partisanship in Washington, D.C. "Looking in from outside," Amanpour said, "it just seems [there is] never-ending partisanship."
"What is it you can do for the people in this highly polarized situation?" Amanpour asked.
Pelosi disputed the premise of the question. "First of all, what you define as ... a highly polarized situation is a very big difference of opinion," Pelosi said. "The Republicans are here for the special interests, we're here for the people's interests," she insisted.
"This isn't about inter-party bickering. This is about a major philosophical difference as to whose side you're on. You don't like to think that. We come here to find our common ground. That's our responsibility. But if we can't find it, we still have to move," she said.
