Pelosi did what no one else could

by Julian Zelizer

Julian Zelizer, a CNN political analyst, is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University and author of the forthcoming book, "Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party." Follow him on Twitter: @julianzelizer.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has brought the impeachment inquiry to its final phase. In her press conference Thursday morning, she announced that the Judiciary Committee will begin drafting articles of impeachment.

Unless a large number of Democrats break from the Speaker, President Trump will join Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton as the only presidents who have been formally impeached by the House. From the perspective of presidential history, this will become a major part of how we remember the term.

With a firm hand and clear vision, Speaker Pelosi has done something that no one else seemed to be able to accomplish. She has seized back the public square from the Trump White House. For the first two years of the administration, Democrats struggled to focus any discussion as the President and his tweets and scandals constantly sent the media chasing the latest shiny objects.

Democrats often seemed incapable of responding. Without control of the House, they were in a perpetual struggle to move the discussion away from the chaos and fog and toward the most pressing issues.

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