From Jack Murtha to Kamala Harris: The Failed Legacy of Nancy Pelosi

by Ronald Kolb

When Nancy Pelosi announced that she was retiring from the House after she completes her 20th full term in 2027, her twenty years as Democrat House leader and eight of those years as Speaker were filled with controversies, pettiness and failures. It started with her failure to have corrupt John Murtha to become Majority Leader instead of her nemesis Steny Hoyer as she was incoming as Speaker in 2006 and ended with her choice to force Biden out of the 2024 presidential race and replace her with the hapless Kamala Harris.  

Born in Maryland in 1940, her father was Thomas D'Alesandro, a member of the U.S. House and later longtime Mayor of Baltimore. As a child, she helped her father at campaign events. She graduated with a degree in political science from Trinity College in Washington, D.C. in 1962. She later joined the staff of Maryland U.S. Senator Daniel Brewster along with another intern, Steny Hoyer, a year her senior. 

She met businessman Paul Pelosi, a native of San Francisco, and they soon married, moving to California in 1969. Nancy resumed her political career, became close to Rep. Phil Burton, and eventually became head of the California Democratic Party. Burton died in 1983, and his wife Sala succeeded him. While terminally ill from cancer in 1987, Sala recommended Pelosi to succeed her, and she narrowly won a special election, never losing an election again. 

In 2000, Pelosi ran for Minority Whip (second in position to Leader Dick Gephardt) and defeated Steny Hoyer. John Murtha from Pennsylvania ran her campaign and became her closest adviser. He took office in 1974, was eight years her senior and a Vietnam veteran (with several questions about his record). In 1980, he was taped during the infamous FBI bribery sting and narrowly avoided indictment and expulsion. He was named an unindicted co-conspirator and agreed to testify against Frank Thompson (NJ), a World War Two vet who fought at Iwo Jima and Okinawa and John Murphy (NY) a Korean War vet, who had bravely taken out a machine gun nest while fellow troops were under fire. 

After they went to jail, Murtha sat in the back row of the House. He slowly built up his power, first by ramming through pay raises, then members of both parties went on bended knee and Murtha helped them get earmarks and other corrupt deals. It soon became the "Pennsylvania Corner" and by 2000 when he joined forces with Pelosi, it was now the “Murtha Corner." 

He and Pelosi became forces to be reckoned with. After she became Whip in 2001, Murtha ran her successful campaign to become Minority Leader in 2003. Pelosi had already come out against the Iraq war in 2002 and by 2004, she increased her criticism and aligned the Democrats as well, but the party still lost three seats. In 2005, Pelosi urged Murtha to do the same. He called the war a failure and to "redeploy" the troops, and by 2006 he was a constant media presence and caused the Iraq war to become the main issue leading up to the midterms. 

In June, Murtha said publicly that if the Democrats took the midterms, he hoped to be Majority Leader and behind Pelosi as Speaker. Soon Hoyer, then Majority Whip, said he hoped to do the same. In October, a month before the midterms, the January 1980 Murtha Abscam videotape was made public. 

On the full tape after Murtha had said he "wanted to know you guys better" before taking the $50,000 bribe, he made his real intentions clear, saying "those guys" (Thompson and Murphy) can have their deal, but he wanted his own deal and would be back in touch. On February 2nd the FBI went public. Before they busted middleman Howard Criden, a Philadelphia attorney, he said he'd spoken with Murtha and he's ready to "play now." 

He initially agreed to plead guilty, get a short sentence and testify against Thompson, Murphy and Murtha (and indict Murtha for conspiracy) but the deal fell apart when Criden was an initial focus of media leaks and attention. A witness was still needed against Thompson and Murphy because Criden had handled the cash on their tapes, so Murtha quickly volunteered.

He was named an unindicted co-conspirator and testified against both men and Criden, who were all sentenced to prison. As noted, Murtha slowly built up his reputation again as a corrupt dealmaker with clout before becoming Pelosi's chief advisor. When the full contents of the Abscam tape were revealed a month before the 2006 midterms, the mainstream press deliberately ignored the story and the Democrats took the House. 

The tape had damaged Murtha, and a week after the midterms but days before the leadership election, Murtha had begged Pelosi for her endorsement as Majority Leader, and she did so publicly. The story finally took off, with the Abscam tape going worldwide. There was a revolt among the Democratic caucus with many shifting to Hoyer. Pelosi began meeting with other members and threatening them, including with poor committee assignments, but to no avail. 

When the caucus met behind closed doors, Pelosi was chosen as Speaker, but Hoyer defeated Murtha for Majority Leader in a landslide, 149-86. When the new leadership emerged to meet the press, Hoyer was beaming, Pelosi was shaken, and Murtha was standing in the back, constantly looking down. Pelosi awkwardly grabbed Hoyer's hand and they raised arms together to show unity, but the damage was done. 

Pelosi's first decision as Speaker for having Murtha as her number two went down in flames and her longtime nemesis Hoyer was chosen instead. This would set the stage for other controversies and failures of her tenure as leader. 

In 2010, she guided the passage of the Affordable Health Care Act (Obamacare) which is still a drain on health care and the economy. In 2019, in her contempt for Trump, she led the first failed impeachment, which charged him with trying to bribe Ukraine to investigate Biden's son Hunter of corrupt activity, when the facts showed that Biden had tried to bribe Ukraine to stop investigating Hunter. 

In 2020 during Trump's State of the Union speech, and only weeks before her 80th birthday, Pelosi childishly tore up her copy of Trump's speech before the eyes of the world. In 2021, even though Trump was no longer President, Pelosi led the second failed impeachment, this time concerning January 6th, even though Trump had told protestors to be "peaceful and patriotic" and had never been charged with inciting a riot. 

Pelosi had now turned impeachment into a political weapon against opponents. The Nixon impeachment had dealt with him covering up his reelection campaign and White House involvement with the Watergate burglary and that he had conspired with others to cover it up. The Clinton impeachment involved him lying in the deposition Paula Jones had brought about his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky and conspiring to cover it up. 

In 2024, she made several ugly and crude statements about Republican voters, and over the years has done the same about her contempt for Trump, while he sometimes responds in kind. She has refused to address legitimate questions about the staggering wealth she and her husband have made from stock deals and possible inside trading. She also advocates that states be required to perform transgender surgery for children on a nationwide basis.

And finally, after the disastrous June 2024 debate with Trump which only proved that Biden was no longer mentally capable of serving, Pelosi visited Biden personally and warned him if he didn't get out, she would expose the polls showing he would lose to Trump and would also expose his true mental condition.

So even though Biden had won enough delegates and clinched the nomination, the system be damned, and Kamala Harris was anointed as the nominee, without receiving a single vote. She would go on to lose in an electoral landslide and Trump would win the popular vote. And Pelosi now blames Biden for not withdrawing sooner. 

Even before announcing her retirement, she called Trump "a vile creature" and "the worst thing on the face of the earth." One should never forget the pettiness, corruption and failures of Pelosi's tenure. Because if you don't remember the past, you might be doomed to repeat it.