On Thursday, January 4, 2007, Democrat Nancy Pelosi of California was elected the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives. Elizabeth I would probably be astounded that it has taken over two hundred years for Americans to raise a woman to the Speaker’s position. After all, as Elizabeth once joked:
“There is no marvel in a woman learning to speak, but there would be in teaching her to hold her tongue.”
Despite Elizabeth’s often self-deprecating sense of humor, she well understood just how powerful a woman politician could be. She said in 1588:
“I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king.”
Elizabeth would no doubt offer newly elected Speaker Pelosi hearty congratulations on this historic day, and encourage Pelosi to show that she, too, has the heart and stomach of a king as she gets down to work.
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