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Speaker Pelosi does her dad, country proud Kevin blaum In the arena

Sunday November 15, 2009 | 12:00 AM

SATURDAY LAST we arrived home from Ball State University, having seen our youngest play her final field hockey game of the season. It was a beautiful day for a drive.

By early evening I turned the key in the front door thinking of our eldest traveling between Iowa and California and who, in a few hours, would be celebrating her 24th birthday. The emotions of leaving one daughter, thinking of the other and recalling the momentous event nearly a quarter century ago floods a father’s brain in a way every dad of a daughter understands.

We made it home just in time to witness a breathtaking triumph being televised nationwide. Instantly I thought of Tom D’Alesandro looking on as the U.S. House of Representatives adopted the United States’ first national health care reform bill.

Tom D’Alesandro, the son of Italian immigrants, was born in 1903 in Maryland. At age 23 he was elected to the Maryland state House of Delegates; at 35 he became a congressman; at 43 he was elected the 49th mayor of Baltimore. Tom and his wife had six children: five boys and a girl. The oldest son became Baltimore’s 53rd mayor. Tom’s youngest, Nancy Patricia, would become the 60th speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

More than anyone else, it was Tom’s strong and talented daughter who got health care through the House and over to the Senate for the American people.

Nancy married her college sweetheart, Paul Pelosi, in 1963. In 1969 the Pelosi couple moved cross country to San Francisco, where young Nancy became active in California politics, making good use of the skills she inherited from Tom. The Pelosis had five children and thus far seven grandchildren.

When a San Francisco congressional seat unexpectedly opened in 1987, Nancy decided to run and won a June 2 special election. Two months after seeing his daughter elected to congress, Tom passed away. Twenty years later, at age 67, his Nancy would become the first woman elected speaker of the House.

While there have been 59 previous speakers, few are memorable. Constitutionally, the speaker of the House is second in line to the presidency, yet not many are considered great.

Our first speaker, one of high standing, was Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania. Among others who have left their mark are Henry Clay of Kentucky, James Knox Polk and Joseph Byrns of Tennessee, Schuyler Colfax of Indiana, Joe Cannon of Illinois, John Nance Garner and Sam Rayburn of Texas and John McCormack and Tip O’Neill of Massachusetts. And soon history will add the name Nancy D’Alesandro Pelosi of California.

Speakers always have the miserable job of cobbling together the necessary votes to enact laws vital to the national interest. Invariably these challenges present themselves in times of angst and urgency. Remarkably, the more farsighted a concept, the greater difficulty the speakers have in delivering a majority when so few members representing disparate interests can imagine a future beyond the next electoral horizon.

The full measure of Speaker Pelosi’s masterful achievement of crafting a national health care bill capable of passing the House (220-215) is impossible for reporters and legislative experts to adequately relate. It has never been done before. Suffice to say Speaker Pelosi pitched a perfect game, threw a Super Bowl-winning pass, hit a Series-ending grand slam, took the World Series of Poker and did it all on the same day.

Tom, your daughter did great; you must be very proud.