Pelosi vs. Gibbs

It’s not often you get a peek behind the curtain, to see what top politicians are saying to each other in moments of unrestrained candor. Thus, the emerging spat between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is both illuminating and entertaining. On Sunday, Gibbs had the gall to say what everyone in Washington knows — that there are enough seats in play for Democrats to lose control of the House of Representatives in November. Everyone knows it, but for the president’s spokesman to say it in public is heretical, especially to Madame Speaker. Pelosi reportedly ripped into Gibbs during a closed-door meeting of Democrats at the Capitol Tuesday night, dressing down the top White House staffer in attendance, arguing that Gibbs doesn’t know much about races in individual districts. The obvious question, writes National Review Online’s Jim Geraghty, is how much Pelosi knows about individual races. Seasoned political prognosticators like Stu Rothenberg and Charlie Cook have detailed lists showing a number of Democratic incumbents in big trouble just four months from the election. Speaker Pelosi isn’t one of them, so maybe it’s hard for her to see the peril her unpopular agenda has created for Democrats in districts that aren’t as lopsidedly liberal as hers. For speaking truth to the country (and the speaker), Gibbs is catching Pelosi’s full wrath. Stay tuned.

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