Pelosi 'very confident' of election gains

by Matthew Hay Brown

In the public service announcement they taped recently to promote cleaner energy, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Speaker Newt Gingrich joked that they don't agree on much.

It sounds now as if they can add a second item to the list.

Earlier this week, Gingrich pleaded with fellow Republicans to "chart a bold course of real change" or face "catastrophe" at the polls in November.

Pelosi appears to agree.

"Right now I would say we would gain seats," the California Democrat told reporters Thursday. "I wouldn't venture a guess as to how many. But I do see November as a time of great victory for the Democrats."

With special election wins in Illinois and Louisiana, Democrats already have increased their House majority by two seats this year. Pelosi says a major electoral shift is underway.

"We will have an historic election as to whom we elect as the president of the United States, either the first woman or the first African American, but a person who can unify America," she said. "We will have a strong, confident, predictable Democratic Majority to take us forward, and then we will be in 2010, 2012, and on the path to a strong Democratic leadership for a long time to come."