"This victory belongs to her," said a 10-term rep as Nancy Pelosi doggedly pushed health reform through the House last night. “As far as I know she never sleeps nor eats.” And though the speaker herself joked, "That was easy" last night, Politico notes that Pelosi used every tool in her toolbox to cajole, strongarm, and cobble together her historic 220 votes—a feat that eluded each of her predecessors.
"I think this is probably the biggest win she'll have in all the years she serves," says Rep. Jack Murtha said of his California colleague. "This affects every person in the country. Nothing else, not the [Iraq] war, nothing else touches everyone else in the country. This is the biggest thing she'll do." (More Nancy Pelosi stories.)