title:  Breaking: Dems Keep Progressive Bent In All-Important Leadership Election (DETAILS)
text: Nancy Pelosi has been the leader of the House Democrats for a very long time, and she is well-respected. However, in the wake of the shellacking the Democrats took during this election, there were strong rumblings that our party needs new leadership, and Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OHIO) thought he was the man to unseat Pelosi. That turned out not to be the case, though, and Pelosi retained her leadership position.Pelosi will be flanked by powerful House Democrats such as Rep. Jim Clyburn (R-SC) and Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) in her efforts to gain seats for the midterms. She was also backed by the powerful Congressional Black Caucus. Many may argue that these are the reasons she won with 68 percent of the vote, but there are things folks do not generally know about the largely unknown Rep. Tim Ryan.This anonymity on the part of Rep. Ryan is important for a number of reasons. While, yes, Pelosi is a member of the Democratic old guard, she s also much more progressive than Tim Ryan could ever hope to be. Rep. Ryan has only been pro-choice for a little over a year, and it took a personal situation of his wife having a child that had potential problems to make him recognize the government should not be making those kinds of difficult and deeply personal decisions. It s just like what hypocritical Republicans do   they want to control everyone else s decisions in this area, but when it comes to their own lives, they do as they please. It s the ultimate in hypocrisy.This is unacceptable, as it really seems to be a matter of political convenience; after all, Democrats have been a pro-choice party for a very long time. If you re not pro-choice, you re not a real Democrat. You simply can t be. We re the party that fights FOR women s rights. We don t need anti-woman neanderthals in our ranks.Also, Pelosi is battle tested against the extremism of the House Republicans. We know that she will stand up to the bigoted agenda of the likes of Paul Ryan and his cronies. She won t let them strip away the rights of women, racial minorities, religious minorities, LGBTQ people, or anyone else. She also will not allow them to privatize medicare, deregulate the big banks, destroy Elizabeth Warren s Consumer Protection Bureau, or do any of the other horrific things the GOP is salivating over as we speak.Rep. Ryan, you had a good run, but I, for one, am glad that we have Nancy Pelosi heading things up for the American people in these troubled times.Featured image via Win McNamee/Getty Images