CHRIS CRUCIAL: Nancy Pelosi 💔 AOC

PLUS: Lisa Murkowski, Independent?

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1. Nancy vs AOC

Nancy Pelosi has never really liked Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Which is why it should surprise absolutely no one who has been paying attention that the former Speaker is working to submarine the New York rising star’s bid to be the leading Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.

As Punchbowl News reported on Thursday:

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi is actively working to tank Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) bid to become the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. Pelosi is making calls on behalf of Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), who is running against AOC to be ranking member of Oversight.

That development came less than 24 hours after Politico declared that AOC had the top job all but wrapped up:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is poised to become the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, punctuating a huge generational shift in the party’s power centers amid a sudden overthrow of senior leaders…

…According to interviews with a dozen members and staffers, Ocasio-Cortez has earned the support of the majority of Democrats on the panel, though it’s the Steering and Policy Committee and the full caucus who ultimately decide. The Oversight panel is stacked with younger, more progressive members who tend to align more with her than Connolly.

What gives? Why isn’t Pelosi an AOC fan? Well, there’s some history there. Actually, a lot of history.

It all began just over 6 years ago — on November 18, 2018. Ocasio-Cortez had pulled the upset of the election a few months before when she had toppled New York Rep. Joe Crowley, a member of Pelosi’s leadership team.

AOC was immediately made into a star of the liberal left — and emerged as an agitator against the establishment politicians in her own party. On that November day, she took part in a sit-in — in then-Speaker Pelosi’s office(!).

Here’s how Politico covered it:

More than 200 youth activists, flanked by Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, flooded House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s office this morning urging Democrats to act more decisively on climate change.

Capitol Police said they arrested 51 protesters for unlawfully demonstrating outside Pelosi’s office in the Cannon House Office Building. The arrests began a few hours after the demonstration began, when protesters refused to leave the area. Pelosi said she welcomed the protest and called on the police “to allow them to continue to organize and participate in our democracy.”

Ocasio-Cortez, who left before the arrests began, said she was there to support the protesters and encourage Pelosi to listen to them. Ocasio-Cortez has not made clear yet whether she’ll back Pelosi for speaker when Democrats hold leadership elections later this month, though noted today she’s “looking forward to us working together.”

To my mind, Pelosi never forgave AOC for that transgression. And, at every chance she has had since, she has thrown shade at the New York congresswoman.

When AOC unveiled the so-called “Green New Deal” in February 2019, Pelosi offered this comment about it: “It will be one of several or maybe many suggestions that we receive. The green dream, or whatever they call it, nobody knows what it is, but they’re for it, right?”

BAZINGA!

Then there was this exchange a few months later when Pelosi sat for an interview with Lesley Stahl of “60 Minutes”:

Lesley Stahl: You have these wings– AOC, and her group on one side–

Pelosi: That’s like five people.

Stahl: No, it’s – the progressive group is more than five.

Pelosi: Well, the progressive – I’m a progressive. Yeah.

POW!

Later that year, Pelosi — via the Steering Committee she controlled — blocked Ocasio-Cortez from a seat on the powerful Ways and Means Committee, giving it instead to another New York congressman.

OOMPH!

The feud has simmered quietly behind the scenes for years — even as AOC has made nice with much of the party establishment as she positions herself for a likely national leadership role in the coming years.

But, Pelosi has never made much of a secret of the fact that she’s not an AOC fan. The lede of this 2021 Politico story by Susan Page on the lack of a relationship between the two women speaks to that divide:

“Nancy doesn’t have much patience for people who don’t know what they don’t know.”

That was what a senior congressional Democrat close to the speaker of the House told me when I asked what Nancy Pelosi really thought of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

So, what, exactly, doesn’t Pelosi like? My sense is that Pelosi sees herself as an OG liberal — and does not like the insinuation by some of the younger members on the left that she’s not committed enough to the cause.

Or Pelosi thinks that AOC’s celebrity — particularly among the very young and the very online — is premised on not what she’s done but who she is.

Or it’s the age-old distrust older people have for young rising stars. (Been there, done that!)

Whatever it is — and whatever Pelosi and AOC say publicly — it’s clear that the California Democrat is not interested in seeing her New York colleague advance. And is willing to do whatever she can to stop her.

2. Lisa Murkowski isn’t a fan of political parties

Senate Republicans will control 53 seats in the 119th Congress. But one of their ranks — Alaska Sen Lisa Murkowski — doesn’t love the GOP label.

“I'm not attached to a label, I'd rather be that ‘no label,’” she said in Washington on Thursday. “I'd rather be that person that is just known for trying to do right by the state and the people that I serve, regardless of party, and I'm totally good and comfortable with that.”

She added: “I don't think I've made any secret of the fact that I'm more of a Ronald Reagan Republican than I am a Trump Republican. And someone said, ‘Well, you aren’t really a Republican at all.’ And I said, ‘You can call me whatever you want to call me.’”

Murkowski is among the small handful of Republican elected officials in Washington willing to buck President-elect Trump publicly.

She said in October that she would not vote for Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris. “I want to vote for somebody and not against someone,” Murkowski told the Anchorage Daily News. “I am going to be voting for someone and hopefully I will feel good about that, even knowing that that individual probably is not going to be in the winner column.”

Murkowski also did not vote for Trump in 2016 or 2020.

Even before Trump emerged on the scene, Murkowski had her issues with the more right-wing elements of her party.

In 2010, amid the rise of the tea party, Murkowski lost a Senate primary to a man named Joe Miller. Undaunted, she ran a write-in general election campaign and won — the first candidate to emerge victorious in a write-in effort for Senate in more than five decades.

Murkowski is widely regarded as a critical swing vote in the coming confirmation fights over Trump’s Cabinet nominees.

When asked about whether Matt Gaetz, Trump’s original pick to be Attorney General, was a serious candidate for the job, Murkowski responded: “Not as far as I’m concerned.”

Gaetz dropped out of consideration a week later.

3. The looooong history of Donald Trump and Time Magazine

For the second time in the last 8 years, Donald Trump was named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” on Thursday.

His obsession with Time — and the “POY” award — goes back a very long way. I made a video today on my YouTube channel documenting that wild and wooly history. Subscribe if you haven’t!

4. Chris Cillizza, MMA Fighter

For those of you who asked for a photo of my sparring match with Kansas Rep. Sharice Davids today, here it is:

NOTABLE QUOTABLE

“This can’t be the Wild West of drone activity.” — New Jersey Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer about a series of recent mystery drones sightings in his state

ONE GOOD CHART

Why do so many people dislike and distrust corporations? This chart — via Steve Rattner — goes a long way to answering that question.

SONG OF THE DAY

In the mid 2000s, when Ryan Adams was at the peak of his fame, there was a rumored secret album — his master work! — that never got released. It was called “Blackhole.” Well, 20+ years later, “Blackhole” is finally here. This is “Catherine” off of it.

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