Off to a good start

I'll admit, I'm a bad citizen- I didn't vote in November's election. But I DID explain the whole of the US government- branches, checks and balances, electoral college, vetoes and all- to a coworker from India on election day, so I felt somewhat civic-minded even though I shirked my duty.

That said, I'm happy with the outcome of the election. I didn't know much about Nancy Pelosi, the newest Speaker of House, but I'm glad she banned smoking in the House and pushed through the minimum wage hike that's been too long in coming. We'll see what the rest of her first 100 hours hold.

Emerging Women has a post about thoughts on the first woman Speaker,

Pelosi doesn't hide that yes she is a mother and a grandmother. She will not abandon that identity just because she now has "more important things to do." Which of course helps us see the absurdity of that hierarchy to begin with. She also has chosen to not act like the alpha males in politics. As the editorial said - "At her first press conference after the Democrat's November win, Pelosi spoke in distinctly soft, controlled, feminine tones. Journalists in attendance were visibly frustrated, and Pelosi finally raised her voice, saying, 'But I could use my mother-of-five voice.'"
I like the idea of female politicians not having to compromise one more aspect of who they are in order to play the politics game.

and Salon has a take on it as well:

Infant grandchild in one hand, herding five more with the other, nattily dressed nanny discreetly within hand-off distance, the new speaker was the picture of the kind of woman with whom America ought to feel an immediate affinity. The daughter of a political dynasty and a longtime party insider, Pelosi ignored her own electoral urges until the youngest of her five kids was a senior in high school and all but ordered Mom to go for it. ("Get a life" was what the angelic teen said when Pelosi broached the subject.) Pelosi was 46. Because of my own ambivalence about motherhood, I have something near reverence for this type of female selflessness, whether forced on her by custom and family pressure or freely chosen. Pelosi proves that women can have it all. Just not all at once. And also that motherhood doesn't have to calcify your spirit, your brain, your looks, your intellect or your drive.