I know we’re all supposed to hate Mrs.Pelosi, and I certainly have no love for her. But I do have a begrudging respect for what she’s been able to accomplish as a woman in government. Everyone should.

Yes, her politics are dead wrong, and she’s been horrible for this country, but politics aside, Pelosi is a woman who had a mission and executed it. She has ruled House Democrats, and the party in general, with an iron fist. Republican congressional leaders could take a lesson from America’s Wicked Stepmother. Pelosi has the one skill that is most important in any minority/majority leader – she knew how to whip votes…and probably some people too, if we’re being honest.

There are always complaints from the Republican base that our congressional party leaders aren’t conservative enough, or passionate enough, or even honest enough. I hate to say it, but those qualities actually don’t matter in that position. You can be a red-blooded, hard-right Republican and still fail at the job, because at the end of the day the only thing that matters is if you have the personal cache to strong arm, whip votes, and pull wayward party members into line when it counts. Paul Ryan (for the House) failed at the job because he didn’t have the personality to make it work. Mitch McConnell (for the Senate), for all his flaws, is a guy who knows where the bodies are buried, and knows what moves to make to get the necessary votes on board. You don’t get to be a congressional lifer like Mitch or Nancy without knowing how to knock a few heads.

Pelosi may have been annoying to us, but she’s been viciously effective for Democrats. When “the squad” popped up and started causing chaos, the San Francisco granny indulged them for a bit, and even used their media presence to the party’s advantage, but when they’d gone far enough she broke out the gavel and hammered them right back into their places. Whatever conversation she had with AOC, it’s been clear to me since the Summer O’ BLM™ that AOC got the message loud and clear and is learning to settle into her position as the new Bernie Sanders. Pelosi scared people, she owned people, and she had a keen sense of which battles to fight, and which to step back on.

She is everything Hillary Clinton wishes she could be. Clinton is a woman who’s entire career rests on her husband. Pelosi stands alone (goodness knows, drunk old Paul Pelosi is more of a stone around her neck than an anchor for her ship) in her success. Yes, she leveraged powerful contacts to become a powerful politician, but no one is looking to Paul Pelosi to save her campaign every time she has to run.

I won’t miss Nancy personally, but I fear we may all miss her eventually. She is one of the last of the old school Democrat party, one that still had at least a passive appreciation for America. This new generation, educated by Marxists in the public school unions, are ideologues. They’re not interested in finding any middle ground anywhere. They’re willing to burn it all to the ground to win. Pelosi understood that if you want to rule a kingdom, you at least have to make sure there’s a kingdom to rule. The progressive wing of the party holds to no such rule. They despise the kingdom and all its subjects.

This is why I believe, ultimately, Hakeem Jeffries will fail as a Dem whip, should he get the post. As our own Sister Toldjah so skillfully laid out, Jeffries is riddled with Marxist rot, which may float with the base, but surely won’t sit well with entrenched, lifer congressional Democrats who want to win their seats back, not destroy America.

Jeffries, who has been in Congress since 2013, is being portrayed by some in the media “as a capable operator inside the conference with sharp media skills to sell a Democratic message to the public,” though he may get pushback from “Squad” types in the House who reportedly have “labeled him a centrist.”

But what you won’t hear much about from the fawning press when it comes to Jeffries and the “historic” nature of his presumptive upcoming role as House Minority Leader is that he is – by the Democrats’ own very convenient definition – a threat to democracy. An election denier who routinely tries to delegitimize and undermine “our sacred institutions,” as Democrats have often referred to the courts and the democratic process.

It’s not about “messaging” at that level; that’s for communications teams to figure out. As a minority/majority leader you’ve got to whip votes, and Jeffries is not a particularly widely influential man, in my opinion.

Still, it is clear the Democrat party is pulling harder to the left. We may very well soon long for the days of a Nancy Pelosi, who knew how to keep her charges in line, fend off coups, and wield her gavel to make sure everyone around her knew who was in charge and what would happen if you opposed her.

I’ve never cared for her, but my hat is off to Fancy Nancy and her iron throne. We will surely never see another like her…if we’re lucky.