Via Matt, Jonah Goldberg's making some very, very strange points:
I feel a bit sorry for liberals when it comes to Nancy Pelosi. I think among leading Democrats of the last decade or so, she inspires the least respect from her ideological enemies, and deservedly so.
Oh dear God. This coming from a guy whose party is led by a soon-to-be-indicted exterminator, a partially-evolved wrestling coach, and a weak-willed surgeon who conducted a psychic telediagnosis of a comatose political prop that turned out to be wrong. Some Democrats may respect DeLay's ruthlessness, but thinking the majority leader is a political criminal doesn't strike me as the sort of respect Goldberg's talking about. So far as I know, nobody thinks Hastert is anything but an animatronic apparatchik, and I can't think of anyone in contemporary politics who engenders less respect than Frist.
As it happens, all the Democrats I know are quite pleased with Pelosi. I wish she'd give up doing those post-SOTU speeches, but as a party leader and legislative tactician, I've been very impressed with her performance. And that's coming from someone who supported Harold Ford's quixotic play for the post. Meanwhile, in Corner-land, only Jonah Goldberg could possibly pity liberals for the psychic toll Jonah Goldberg's poor opinion of Pelosi must exact. That's a truly heroic level of self-regard. So far as I'm concerned, animus from Tom DeLay and hostility from right-wing rags are a hell of an endorsement for Pelosi's job performance.
