Rumor has it that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to cap her career by being the U.S. Ambassador to Italy. She would be a shoe-in with a Democratic Senate to confirm her if nominated by President Biden.
At 82-years-old the posting to Rome would be a cakewalk. Seems anyone can be ambassador to Italy. We don’t have one now, haven’t had one for almost two years since Republican fat-cat donor Lewis Eisenberg lost his patron Donald Trump. It’s a diplomatic tradition for all politically appointed ambassadors around the world to tender their resignations when a new regime is installed. The plum assignments like European embassies are part of the rewards a new president bestows on his big donors and party hacks.
“President Biden is holding the Italy ambassador position for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as she plots her next move after the 2022 midterm elections,” FOX anchor Maria Bartiromo wrote last September. With the loss of her gavel come January, Pelosi has already opted not to lead the Democratic minority in the House. A move to Rome would suit her well. I’m sure husband Paul would be safer in Villa Taverna (the Ambassador’s 15th Century residence) than in Nancy’s violated home in crime-ridden San Francisco. Besides, the Italian media would treat both of them like demi-gods.
However, there may be a problem for her with Italy’s new right-wing government. Knowing Nancy’s reputation as a political street fighter, tearing up one of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s speeches on TV, as she disgracefully did to President Trump, would result in a quick exit back to her needle-strewn hometown. Who needs Nancy in Rome when any baccalà will apparently do?
I wonder if Meloni knows that Nancy condoned the mob that heaved a Columbus statue into Baltimore Harbor as “people will do what they do”? Nancy came from Baltimore and her father was once mayor – so much for her sentimental attachments and Italian pride! Imagine an Italian ambassador being welcomed here who condoned dumping a statue of George Washington into Genoa Harbor.
Some may think me too harsh on ‘cugina’ Nancy – Italians should stick together, right? But, please tell me what she has ever done for our community. She was AWOL on every Italian American issue directed at Congress. She had no part in the House hearing on “1942” (La Storia Segreta) – that mass expulsion of 10,000 Italian Americans happened only a few miles from her district in San Francisco. (I didn’t even see her in the room.) She ignored our appeals to have the FBI stop labeling criminal Italian gangs as “crime families” and “Mafia”. She wanted no part in protesting Steven Spielberg’s mafia-tainted animation Shark Tale for children. Her pandemic hypocrisy (no lockdown for her) and State of the Union pranks don’t make her a role model, either.
In contrast, she has been front and center for Israeli and Jewish causes (her daughter converted by marriage) and for recognition of the Armenian Holocaust which occurred in Turkey in 1915.
A recent Wall Street Journal editorial pointed out that it was Nancy who undermined democracy in the House by unilaterally ousting four Republicans she didn’t like from Committee assignments – a precedent she started and will come back to haunt the Democrats in January. She did it with two standing Committees and with the January 6th Committee.
Speaking of which, perhaps Nancy thinks the Atlantic Ocean will distance her from a Republican investigation into her actions prior to the January 6th Capitol breach. As Speaker she gave herself, her staff, and the Capitol Police brass special dispensations from testifying at her party’s J6 hearings. Those investigators have been curiously uninterested in why the National Guard wasn’t on duty when 50,000 protestors closed in on the Capitol – a rather burning question, since Nancy and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell were responsible for security. The Republican House majority will, no doubt, beckon Nancy to fill in those missing details.
If she is in Rome they will invite her back with an old Latin greeting: subpoena. -JLM
I seem to recall that the Vatican once rejected a proposed U.S. ambassador as being philosophically unacceptable. That might be the case also with Pelosi. An ambassador like Pelosi could and probably would try to influence Italy/U.S. interactions at a very critical juncture in U.S./Euro relationships. Imagine the anti-woke Italian PM Meloni having to deal with the ultra-woke Pelosi. My money is on Meloni, considering the tongue lashing she gave French PM Macron recently over the illegal immigration issue. Of course, the Pope would probably welcome Pelosi with open arms, being a kindred spirit and all.
She has done nothing for us (Italian Americans) and this would be another slap in the face if she were to be appointed to this position.
NO, no she has not represented the Italian American community well. She says I’m proud to be an Italian American, no action but just words. Her values are not mine or many in our community. She would not be a good ambassador especially with the government Italy has now.
I would find her appointment an embarrassment as a representative of Italian Americans in Italy and to the Italians!
I want to take her up on that “people will do what they do” with her husband’s assault.