The Oxford English Dictionary defines a moderate as “a person who holds moderate opinions in politics.” A pragmatist is “a person concerned with practical rather than theoret­ical or ideological matters.” Growing up in Balti­­­­­more’s Little Italy, where her father, Thomas D’Ales­andro Jr., was a member of Congress in the 1930s and ’40s and then mayor until the late ’50s, Nancy Pelosi became a pragmatist early on. D’Ales­andro’s constituents came by the house day and night to ask for his help in finding jobs or cutting through city bureaucracy. He won 23 consecutive elections over a span of three decades because he got results. As Pelosi says, “You are either going to affect the decision or you are just going to be a naysayer.”

Three examples, one from early in her congressional career, the others from the past few months:

Backbench billions for AIDS: When Pelosi went to Congress from San Francisco in 1987, the biggest issue facing her district was AIDS, which had already killed 20,000 Americans and roughly 2,000 San Franciscans. President Ronald Reagan had mentioned AIDS in public exactly twice. Rather than stage a theatrical confrontation with the president, Pelosi hired one of the country’s leading AIDS experts, Steve Morin, who is now at UCSF, to bring credibility to the issue, and went about meticulously putting together a coalition. She understood that most of the country didn’t share the Bay Area’s urgent desire to take on the deadly disease. But she figured that would change.

From her seat on the labor committee, she pushed through a measure to provide housing to those dying of AIDS. She got Medicare amended to cover a gap that left many HIV/AIDS patients uninsured. She won herself a seat on the appropriations committee and began to direct millions—and then billions—of dollars toward treatment. “I want to get a job done,” Pelosi told the San Francisco Chronicle in 1988 when someone criticized her for being a “backbencher.” “I’m not here to grandstand.”

Lose—but win—for transgenders: For two decades, human rights advocates have pushed legislation to protect gays and lesbians, and more recently bisexuals and transgenders, from job discrimination. As speaker, Pelosi was able to schedule a vote, something Republicans had never been willing to do. There was enough support to obtain protection for gays, lesbians, and bisexuals; the measure passed only after Pelosi agreed to drop transgenders from the bill.

Some gay groups calledthe bill’s passage a historic moment. Others called it a sellout. (And with Republicans threatening to filibuster, it has yet to come up for a vote in the Senate.) For Pelosi, who personally supported including transgenders, it was a no-brainer: Build a consensus, take what you can get, and then come back for more when the support is there.

Stimulate compromise on the stimulus plan: This past winter, Pelosi negotiated with the White House and her Republican counterparts in Congress on a $168 billion stimulus plan to jolt the sagging economy. Republicans favored tax cuts. Democrats wanted a boost in unem­ployment benefits and food stamps and tax cuts for the middle class. The middle ground was not apparent. In a series of all-day negotiations, Pelosi forfeited the unemployment and food-stamp benefits. In exchange, she got the Republicans to agree to send stipends of at least $300—in some cases, more than $1,000—to more than 30 million Americans who don’t earn enough to pay income taxes. Pelosi’s top priority had been to get money into the hands of the middle class and the poor, and the bill President Bush signed in February was more progressive than most Democrats had dreamed of.