For much of the 21st century, people disparaging the Democratic Party, and particularly its moderate or Establishment wing, have accused it of lacking courage or spine. No one said that, however, about one of the party’s enduring pillars of strength, longtime House leader and sometime Speaker Nancy Pelosi , who just announced she would retire from Congress at the end of her current term.

Some Democrats and most Republicans thought Pelosi was wrong from time to time during her 39 years in the House, 20 of them as leader of her party’s caucus. But nobody doubted her resolution, her vote-counting skills, her sheer political chops, and — most of all — her toughness in tight spots. Her gradual relinquishment of power in Washington (and soon in San Francisco) made her a regular symbol of D

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