But Nancy Pelosi Whyyyy Won't You Be Bipartisaaaaaan

Oh god, SHUT UP Lesley Stahl.

Nancy Pelosi was interviewed by Lesley Stahl on "60 Minutes" Sunday, and it was a perfectly normal 60 Minutesish interview of a top politician. Some mildly challenging questions, some tut-tutting over the sad state of partisanship in our great land, the usual. Donald Trump wasn't a fan, and hispissy little tweet about the interview almost certainly led far more people to watch it than otherwise would have. (Heck, the "60 Minutes" Twitter feed only ran six excerpts/promos following the airing, and nine aimed at picking up some "Game of Thrones" traffic). We sure hope Pelosi sends Trump a nice little thank-you note for the larger audience. Ah, we see her social media people already did! 

Here is Donald Trump making A IDIOT of himself again last night:

Such a “puff piece” on Nancy Pelosi by @60minutes, yet her leadership has passed no meaningful Legislation. All the… https: //t.co/eob8VSAFbR

— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump) 1555288089.0 

He's such a nice fellow, getting the interview some extra views like that. We wouldn't say the interview was a puff piece, exactly, although Pelosi definitely came off looking pretty darn good -- and it certainly helps she had a schmuck like Donald Trump as a foil, for sure.

Trump may as well have been taking his tweet's central gripe -- that the minority party hasn't passed a single law despite the Republican Senate and president in its first hundred days! -- straight from one of Stahl's questions in the interview, about why Pelosi and the House Dems aren't kumbayahing all over Senate Republicans. Of course, Pelosi was more than ready for that:  

Nancy Pelosi has one word to describe the Speaker of the House’s power to set the agenda - awesome.… https: //t.co/TS1Q4QypNs

— 60 Minutes (@60 Minutes) 1555283413.0 

Stahl: One of the complaints we've heard is that you don't reach across the aisle because it seems like right now nothing is getting done. You pass things -- whatever it is dies in the Senate.

Pelosi: Nothing's died. We already put together 100 days, the fact that we even passed them in the House is a victory. Let's figure out the places -- figure out where we can find common ground. There's always been bipartisan support for Dreamers, bipartisan support for gun safety, bipartisan support for infrastructure.

Stahl: But why doesn't anything get done with the Dreamers?

Pelosi: We just started. We're three months since we were in office.

Stahl: But you're talking about 100 days. This president's been in office for two years plus.

Pelosi: And we've been here three months. Hey, may I introduce you to the idea of the power of the speaker is to set the agenda. We didn't have a speaker who would bring a gun bill to the floor. We didn't have a speaker who would bring a Dreamers issue to the floor. We do now. And that's a very big difference. The power of the speaker is awesome. Awesome.

Gotta say, that was a lot more polite than saying, "Lesley, are you saying I should bring up some tax cuts and maybe repeal Obamacare?" Pelosi did say she'd love to find things to work on with Republicans -- like maybe a solution for Dreamers and universal background checks, which polls say R voters want, though of course, both left it unsaid that R leadership does not.

Pelosi also enjoyed the recap of that December meeting where she left Trump looking like a gibbering dope as he just muttered "Wall, Wall, Wall" over and over. Stahl noted that she'd stood up to Trump in a way few people ever do, and Pelosi said nah, people stand up to him all the time, but not usually when he thinks the focus is required by law to stay on him.

Pelosi: Well, that was his problem. In other words I tried to say let's not have this conversation in the public domain because you're saying things that we have to contradict because they're not true. And he said, "Oh, I want the public to see it." Well, you want them to see that you don't-- don't know what you're talking about? Really?

Stahl: Here's what you've said. You've said, "If someone's ripping your face off. You rip their face off." [Laughs]

Pelosi: Oh yeah, I would do that.

And of course the two talked a bit about her sarcastic clapping at The Great Man during the State of the Union; Stahl noted that Pelosi's campaign merch page is selling "Patron Saint of Shade" t-shirts. Honestly, that really ispandering, since Stahl might just as well have pointed out Wonkette's far nicer "Ride or Die" Pelosi posse shirts. 

But does Nancy see herself as a "giant slayer"? Heck no, although we think another shirt design depicting her as Buffy the Vampire Slayer might get some traction. Instead, Pelosi said, "I think I happen to be a manifestation of the woman power that is coming forth now, but only one manifestation." Fair enough!

We also like the bit where Stahl talked to a large group of the Democratic women in the House about the speaker. Best line came from Karen Bass, who like Pelosi is from California: "I like the way that the president can't figure out how to deal with her." They all applauded at that one. A few admitted they "fear" Pelosi, but only so far as wanting to go and hide in a restroom if they ever vote against her. Pelosi said nobody fears her, but when Stahl mentioned the hiding thing, Pelosi replied, "Oh, they do that, yeah [...] But the men do that, too. That's not just the women."

Have we mentioned we really like Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi?

Pelosi said the constant Deep Rifts narrative is overblown, noting that Democrats are all Democrats, and that she has no problem at all with some people being leftier than her, and reminding Stahl "I'm a progressive." On the supposed clash over Obamacare and Medicare for All, Pelosi noted that the ACA actually covers more now than Medicare as it currently exists, and said she's certainly open to M4A. Further, she said, no matter WHAT Democrats say about healthcare, Republicans will call it socialism and the Death Of The Republic, just as Ronald Reagan did when he predicted in the '60s that "Medicare will lead us to a socialist dictatorship. This is -- this is an ongoing theme of the Republicans."

The interview closed with Stahl asking Pelosi to "describe" Donald Trump, and Pelosi doing jujitsu to the question yet again.

Pelosi: How would I describe him? I think that he describes himself on a daily basis and -- I think that there's nobody in the country who knows better that he should not be president of the United States than Donald Trump.

Stahl: You think he knows it himself?

Pelosi: I think he does. Yeah. But I respect the office he holds and, uh, he's not-- worth the trouble of saying you're so horrible we can't work together. No, we need to work together.

CBS News failed to include, however, the part where in her head she was repressing the urge to roll her eyes and make the universal gesture for wanking. She's pretty classy that way.

[ CBS News ]

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