How did nancy pelosi become Speaker of the House??
Here is my opinion for what its worth,
When Republicans took over the House,the democrats were depressed. They had just lost a major election. They were down and no one wanted the Minority job. No one anted to be sen as leading a bunch that had just handed control over to republicans. They looked around and here was nancy ,a climber.She would take anything if it looked important. So they gave it to her. They really didnt expect to take the house back in 2006,but when they did here was this incompetent ,plastic, bug-eyed fool they had made minority leader. how could they deal with her? If they dropped her they would lose the women’s vote. So they were stuck with her for better or worse. Its worse.
Your Post #8 is an excellent analysis.
Pelosi is very much the same time as Laura Miller, whose just finished her tenure as Mayor of Dallas. A suburban housewife who had a bigger mouth than brain.