From October 2006:
Though she is probably the second most lampooned woman in U.S.
politics -- after Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) -- Pelosi is far
from a household name. "I don't think most people know who I am," she
says.
That could change in one historic moment if Pelosi is pulled from the trenches and plopped into the spotlight.
She sees it as an opportunity to change the culture of Washington.
"I
think the fact that I am a woman will raise expectations in terms of
more hope in government, and I will not disappoint," she says.
"The
gavel of the speaker of the House is in the hands of special interests,
and now it will be in the hands of America's children. I don't mean to
imply my male colleagues will have any less integrity.... But I don't
know that a man can say that as easily as a woman can."
