M Ted, I hope you're right about the stronghold the Democrats have in San Francisco (that there's not even 1/3 of the voters who would vote for a "moderate, progressive Republican" if the party dug one up.
(I've heard that progressive talk radio stations still have trouble holding onto their spots in the SF area, though, because the money is still mostly on the other side.)

Would I replace the Democratic Speaker Of the House Of Representatives with a freshman who, as you say, wouldhave nearly no clout?
Hell, no.
But I also wouldn't encourage a low-clout newbie to challenge said Speaker in the general election and make her - and the party - spend their resources on campaigning for the speaker.

I'd also much rather the liberal challengers aim their arrows at those whom they disagree with on 90% of the issues instead of those they disagree with mainly on strategy or on only 40-50% of the issues.

"And would you remove the first woman to ever become Speaker of the House? And the woman who had achieved the highest office ever held by a woman in US gov't? Not no way. Not no how."

Of course not. But, while Cindy Sheehan must know that beating Pelosi won't make her Speaker Of The House, I'm not so sure a good number of politically uninformed Sheehan supporters realize that. To hear many of them talk, it sounds like they think Sheehan's beating Pelosi would put the Speakership in the hands of someone whose views are more in line with Cindy's than Nancy's are.   And it sounds like that's why they'd vote for Sheehan -- not just to replace one of several hundred Representatives with a more anti-war one.