Pelosi to bring 'a velvet glove and a fist of steel'

But to her colleagues on both sides of the congressional aisle, the 66-year-old Pelosi is a shrewd negotiator and party disciplinarian, schooled in urban politics by her father, who was a mayor of Baltimore.

While Pelosi's ascension to minority leader in 2002 was greeted with some hesitation by Democrats who worried she was too liberal to represent the party, the 10-term congresswoman has established a reputation as tough and determined.

"She's been profoundly underestimated for her whole career," said Matt Bennett , vice president of Third Way, a centrist Democratic group. "You've got to have a velvet glove and a fist of steel, and she's got that."

Democratic lawmakers say privately that Pelosi -- though clearly more of a political lightning rod than her predecessor, Richard Gephardt of Missouri -- has also been a stronger leader and a better advocate for a fractured party.

While Gephardt famously stood next to President Bush in the Rose Garden in 2002 to announce the text of the resolution to authorize war in Iraq, Pelosi fought the resolution and has called Bush "dangerous" and "incompetent" -- words she does not apologize for now.

Bush said yesterday that he didn't take Pelosi's comments personally.

"I've been around politics a long time. I understand when campaigns end and I know when governing begins," Bush said at a news conference. "You know, look, people say unfortunate things at times. But if you hold grudges in this line of work, you're never going to get anything done."

Pelosi, who will become the first female speaker of the House, is clearly aware of her hard-driving image, and makes a point of showcasing her family. When the microphone first failed to work yesterday as she addressed reporters, Pelosi joked: "I'm not in charge of the technical arrangements. But I could use my mother-of-five voice."

The Democratic leader wears a near-constant smile in public, a demeanor that belies her toughness, colleagues say. When Representative William Jefferson , Democrat of Louisiana, came under federal investigation in an ongoing bribery case, Pelosi speedily moved to remove a reluctant Jefferson from the Ways and Means Committee, despite a possible backlash from the Congressional Black Caucus.

Nor does Pelosi countenance any disrespect for her position as Democratic leader. When Democrats lost two House seats in the 2004 elections, Representative Tom Reynolds of New York, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told reporters that "this morning, minority leader Nancy Pelosi woke up with a black eye," and noted her "demoralizing loss."

Pelosi, asked then about the comment, arched an eyebrow. "I don't usually respond down," the Democratic leader said before giving her own analysis of the House races.

In this year's campaign, Republicans sought to hang onto control of the chamber by warning of a Pelosi speakership, "but it didn't work," said Bill Press, a former chairman of the California Democratic Party and longtime friend of Pelosi's. "I think the effort to demonize her stems from the fact that they're afraid of her as speaker."

While Pelosi's politics are clearly to the left of much of her own party, it was she who helped recruit more-conservative Democratic candidates that made the difference for Democrats on Tuesday night, Press said. "This supposedly wacky liberal from San Francisco knows how to win," Press said.

But Pelosi's victory also presents an enormous challenge, as she attempts to hold together a diverse caucus of fellow liberals, Midwestern moderates, and Western conservatives.

Upcoming leadership elections may further divide the Democrats. Pennsylvania Representative Jack Murtha , a former Iraq war supporter who has since become his party's leading voice against the conflict, has announced he will run for the Democrats' number two position of majority leader against Representative Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat who once fought Pelosi for the Democratic leader's job.

Another potential battle was looming between Representatives Rahm Emanuel of Illinois and James Clyburn of South Carolina for the party's number three post. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman Emanuel played a key role in this week's elections, but allies of Clyburn, who is African-American, argue that the Congressional Black Caucus should be represented in high-level leadership.

Martin Frost , a Texas Democrat who once challenged Pelosi for the leader's job, said "she'll have a lot of cooperation early on" from a Democratic caucus giddy with its newfound status in the majority. "We'll see if she can translate it into something permanent."