> “Pelosi always had good money. Her husband is wealthy; her father was a congressman in Baltimore”
Not the kind of money she has now and I disagree that her husband had a lot of money.
Her father as a member of Congress didn’t make the family rich on a congressional salary. Congressional salaries are not set at get-rich rates. Before he was a member of Congress, he was an insurance broker. And his parents were poor immigrants from Italy.
Her family was middle-class.
Her husband had a few small real estate holdings in SF and the two of them own a small (7 acres) vineyard in Napa. That is not wealth, that is mere affluence.
Her net worth comes from real estate holdings. She and her husband’s income could hardly sustain the mortgages they took out to acquire and maintain those few real estate holdings. The money to maintain cash flow has to come from somewhere. That is where the corruption is suspected.
She was on a secret trip to North Korea before Trump’s initiative to reunite the Koreas. There is video there that implicates her in arms trading. That type of deep state trading can sustain all the cash flow she and her husband would likely ever need. But deep state arrangements are never direct. Many members of Congress are bought off using ‘credits’. Likely she received some sort of promotional credits for her role in adeep state arming of the North Korea regime.
The people that arrange these favors know how the game is played. They know how to reward Members who return them favors. Pelosi is no different. The only thing she would insist on is the optics of her as a liberal beholden to serving the poor and infirm. So for example, she sees starvation in North Korea and she moans that it is awful. One of her staff introduces a business person who can help ‘alleviate the suffering’. Pelosi says fine, do that. Then an arms trade occurs. Suddenly, Pelosi’s husband finds out his Chinese bank in SF has awarded them ‘credits’ for their service to humanity, etc.
She’s dirt, but she thinks she smells nice.
Rubio is almost worse, perhaps is worse. Many members of Congress are dirty but insist they smell nice.
Ryan had no money coming into Congress. Now he’s worth $12 million. Being a US Senator is a step up in the grifting. McConnell is worth over $40 million.
And all of Congress is allowed to cash in on insider stock swindles.
https://represent.us/action/insider-trading
Pelosi was affluent as you said when she came into Congress. She was married to a pretty good businessman. I have not read that he profited from her the way Feinstein’s husband did, but I would not be surprised if he did. It could also be that he went from being worth a few million to a lot on his own, and many, many people in San Francisco did from the 1980s to today. If there are articles that explain that their family wealth was earned corruptly, I will be happy to read that.
I agree with you on Ryan and Rubio. They are profiting greatly from their offices.
Pelosi’s father was also mayor of Baltimore for 12 years, and there was a smell of the mafia about him.
Granted that isn’t going to make someone a billionaire, but she did come from a political dynasty. Her brother was also mayor of Baltimore.