WaPo's Henneberger Delighted That 'Princess' Pelosi 'Standing Her Ground'

Washington Post staff writer Melinda Henneberger -- who has admitted to having a "longtime political crush" on the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) -- authored a puffy Style section front-pager today entitled "'Princess' Pelosi standing her ground."

"House leader responds to Cain, vows to do 'for child care what we did for health care,'" notes the print edition's subheader to the 19-paragraph story.

"You can disagree with the House minority leader... or spend at least $65 million running 161,203 ads against her, as Republicans did in the past election cycle. But she hasn't been slowed or trivialized," Henneberger cheered.

"Pelosi has worked overtime to take back the House," the Post staffer noted, going into detail about the former Speaker's jet-setting about the country to raise money for congressional Democrats' efforts to capture the House in the 2012 elections.

Henneberger also reported Pelosi's desire to make federal "child-care legislation" the new ObamaCare. "When it comes to 'unleashing women' in a way that would boost the economy, she says, 'this is a missing link.'"

But for all Pelosi's concern about children after birth, Henneberger noted the House minority leader's unrepentant stance on abortion, particularly her refusal to walk back her insistence that a House Republican push to add "conscience exemptions for health-care reform that would allow providers to refuse to perform abortions" was "savage":

In retrospect, does she think that assessment went too far? Not at all, she said: “They would” let women die on the floor, she said. “They would! Again, whatever their intention is, this is the effect.’’

Catholic health-care providers in particular have long said they’d have to go out of business without the conscience protections that Pelosi says amount to letting hospitals “say to a woman, ‘I’m sorry you could die’ if you don’t get an abortion.” Those who dispute that characterization “may not like the language,’’ she said, “but the truth is what I said. I’m a devout Catholic and I honor my faith and love it . . . but they have this conscience thing’’ that she insists put women at physical risk, although Catholic providers strongly disagree.