Pelosi Offers a Fine Whine

Somebody's feeling a little left out these days:

As she prepares to relinquish power, Nancy Pelosi believes not enough attention has been paid to her role as the first woman to hold the post of Speaker of the House. "I was the first woman speaker," Pelosi tells the New York Times. "It didn't get that much play. And I'm not a publicity seeker, so it was OK with me."

"Boehner, before the election, they had him on the cover of Newsweek," Pelosi continues. "Now, he's on the cover of Time, and women are coming to me and saying, 'Is the job less important when women hold it?'"

It is true that Pelosi was not on the cover of the two newsweeklies when Democrats took control of the House in 2006. But is it true that Pelosi's ascent to the Speaker's chair "didn't get that much play"? Did she not receive as much attention when she became Speaker as John Boehner has after the Republicans' victory on November 2? A survey of the Nexis database of newspaper, magazine, Internet, and television news reports suggests Pelosi has it wrong.

Between November 1, 2006 and November 15, 2006, Nexis shows 6,447 mentions of "Nancy Pelosi" in various news media. Between November 1, 2010 and November 15, 2010, Nexis shows 5,349 mentions of "John Boehner." Not only did Pelosi's election get plenty of play -- it got more than Boehner's.

Didn't Nancy get enough attention when half the new Republicans ran against her in the election? Perhaps not, since the Democrats didn't seem to notice that she was the face of bad Democrat policies and chose her as their Minority Leader.