A Prius With Armor

By Perry Bacon Jr.

As House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi can appoint people to high-level commissions and direct millions of federal dollars to her district. But the lawmaker from San Francisco can't pick her own car. For security reasons, congressional leaders are required to ride in vans or sport-utility vehicles driven by Capitol Hill police. Pelosi, worried about environmental impact, is no longer content to ride in a gas-guzzling black Chevy Suburban. "I want a hybrid," she told TIME last week. A few Governors and mayors have already switched to hybrid cars for their official use. But so far, Pelosi says, security officials have yet to find her a sufficiently up-armored hybrid. U.S. Capitol Police declined to comment on the required specifications.

Pelosi is trying to force Washington to go high tech on other fronts as well. In a recent meeting with Google co-founder Larry Page, Pelosi told him of the Democrats' plan to try to make broadband Internet access available nationwide in 10 years. "Ten, why not two?" Page responded, so Pelosi split the difference and is aiming for five years. She is also pushing the ideas of Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School's innovation guru who says big organizations must open up to new ideas and technology or they will get left behind. Says Pelosi: "We cannot be encumbered by the old way of doing things." Capitol Hill car pool, anyone?