Pelosi to lead House Dems, aims for a centrist economic program

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a California liberal, easily won election Thursday as leader of minority House Democrats and swiftly set a goal of crafting a "down the center" program for economic growth.

"Hopefully, we can find a great deal of common ground with Republicans" across a range of issues, said the 62-year-old, a veteran of 15 years in Congress. "But where not, we will put up the fight."

With her victory, Pelosi became the first woman leader of either party in Congress. "I've been waiting over 200 years," she quipped, but the triumph, when it came, was an easy one. She defeated Rep. Harold Ford of Tennessee on a vote of 177-29.

Pelosi takes the helm of a party that has been out of power in the House for eight years, and suffered a dispiriting loss of seats in last week's elections. She succeeds Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri, who stepped down after four terms as minority leader.

In the run-up to the leadership election, Pelosi's Democratic critics had said her liberal brand of politics could pose a problem for a party struggling to regain a majority.

But she moved to blunt such criticism in the hours before her election, appointing Rep. John Spratt, a South Carolina moderate with experience in military and budget issues, as her assistant.

And on Wednesday night, she was among a minority of the Democratic rank and file to vote in favor of legislation creating a Department of Homeland Security, a measure that drew criticism from organized labor.

In remarks to reporters, Pelosi stressed that Democrats "stand shoulder to shoulder with the president in support of our young men and women in uniform, and in the fight against terrorism."

"Where we can find common ground on the economy, and on other domestic issues, we shall seek it," she said. "...Where we cannot find that common ground, we must stand our ground."

The election marked a personal triumph for Pelosi who came to Congress in 1987 and was elected to the second-ranking leadership position a year ago. She has used her time in the House to concentrate on intelligence issues as well as the concerns of her district in San Francisco, combatting AIDS among them.

It also marked a watershed event for Democrats, who elected a new top-to-bottom leadership for the first time since losing their majority in 1994.