Pelosi ready for House helm

Pelosi ready for House helm, battle over issues - CNN.com: "Pelosi, 66, isn't afraid to dish out her own jabs, and said that things will be different with Democrats in power -- and with the House gavel in a woman's hands for the first time in the chamber's 217 years.

Pelosi has said that in the first 100 hours of her speakership she will push for action implementing all 9/11 Commission recommendations on national security, raising the minimum wage to $7.25. eliminating corporate subsidies for oil companies, allowing the government to negotiate Medicare drug prices, imposing new restrictions on lobbyists, cutting interest rates on college loans and supporting embryonic stem-cell research.

As for Iraq, Pelosi and the Democrats have yet to explicitly outline their plan for U.S. involvement in the region, but unlike many of her counterparts, Pelosi voted against authorizing the war.

And what about the persnickety allegation that she will skipper tax hikes through the House? Sure she will, said the shoo-in speaker. "We will revisit the tax cuts at the high end in order to give tax cuts to the middle class," she said.

Republican Rep. Tom DeLay was indicted on state money-laundering charges in Texas (he has denied wrongdoing); Republican Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio resigned his seat last week after pleading guilty in an influence-peddling investigation; and Republican Rep. Mark Foley of Florida resigned in September after his sexually explicit Internet messages to teen congressional pages surfaced.

Republicans, who generally oppose her political ideals, openly warn that a Democratic majority will mean endless and frivolous investigations into the Bush administration."