As speaker, Pelosi was able to negotiate in good faith on behalf of her caucus, an advantage that Republican leaders have not always had). “If you turn around and your troops aren’t with you, you’ve obviously lost your bargaining strength,” Chris Van Hollen told Robert Draper. “So one of the things that’s really set Nancy Pelosi apart is her uncanny ability to unite all the different Democratic coalitions around a negotiating position. And whether it was Bush or Boehner or Ryan, they never doubted that she had the votes to back up her position.”

Part of what makes Pelosi appealing to this conservative is that she has exhibited many traits that conservatives generally admire, including hard work and tenacity. One gets the sense that she wasn’t handed anything…

In many ways, Pelosi is a throwback to the leadership qualities and values that conservatives once admired in the days when Ronald Reagan worked across the aisle with an old big-city pol named Tip O’Neill. However, times have changed. Instead of negotiating with The Gipper, she’ll be negotiating with Jell-O. Instead of Ron and Nancy, it’s more like Sid and Nancy.