Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed at Number 3 in the 2019 edition of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women from Forbes. This marks the 16th yearly edition for the list. It was released on Thursday.

The most powerful woman in the world is once again German Chancellor Angela Merkel. This is her ninth consecutive year to earn that distinction. Forbes credits the distinction due to Merkel’s “crusading against anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe”, which sounds like a typical diversity-obsessed response. An argument can be made that Merkel’s cave to the open borders crowd that allowed thousands and thousands of migrants to cross into Germany without vetting of any kind and stay there is a top factor in the troubles Germany is experiencing today.

The Number two spot is occupied by Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank. Pelosi is third, and Ursula Von Der Leyen, President of the European Commission, makes her first appearance on the list at Number 4. Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, is Number 5. Here are a few others of note: Oprah is Number 20 on the list. Remember when she was Queen of the World? An actual queen, Queen Elizabeth ll is ranked Number 40 this year. Ivanka Trump has fallen to Number 42.

Forbes cited Ivanka Trump’s role in the White House for her standing on the list, referencing the administration’s statements that she “helped push for the childcare tax credit passed in 2017 and the creation of a workforce apprentice program.”

Melania Trump is not even on the list. I’ll note that when Michelle Obama was First Lady, she made the list several times – in 2010 she was Number 1. Also not on the list this year is Hillary Clinton. This is a reminder that any day Hillary Clinton isn’t president is a good day. The precocious darling of the climate alarmist movement, Greta Thunberg, is Number 100.

Forbes sings the praises of Nancy Pelosi. The article waxes poetically about the meeting Pelosi attended with President Trump and others last December in the Oval Office as a government shutdown loomed large over lawmakers. She famously told Trump during the 15-minute meeting, “Mr. President, please don’t characterize the strength that I bring to this meeting.” This was all it took for her to be hailed as a badass by liberal women everywhere. That and her role in guiding Impeachmentpalooza through the House is enough to put her on the list for the first time since 2015.

A year later, Pelosi has proven why those who misjudge her do so at their peril. As Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the 79-year-old is second in line for the presidency and the first woman to hold the speakership in American history. She is also the first to return to that role in more than 60 years (her first appointment went from 2007 until 2011, when the Democrats lost control of the House). And she’s the engineer of the country’s fourth-ever impeachment proceedings.

That is already enough to earn her a spot in the history books, but her wielding of authority is what has catapulted her among World’s Most Powerful Women at number 3, the highest rank she’s ever held and the first time she’s been on the list since 2015, when she was number 38. Pelosi’s power manifests from the way she’s directing her authority: on her own terms. She withstood months of pressure from an outspoken wing of her party before initiating the impeachment process, waiting for the strongest possible evidence of the president’s Constitutional misdemeanors. Elsewhere in her term, she has literally stood up and clapped back to Trump and even executed her own trip overseas to meet with allies and assure them of America’s continued might in the world.

“Don’t mess with me,” Pelosi told a reporter who implied that her impeachment motives were personal.

I do ponder where she’ll be next year after impeachment has blown up and President Trump is re-elected because the voting public is sick and tired of partisan Washington drama. Will she be blamed for caving to her far-left socialist wing of her party that has demanded President Trump be impeached before he was even inaugurated? If Democrats end up losing control of the House over it, well, it will be time for retirement for San Fran Gran Nan. I would relish the chance to raise a glass to Pelosi’s retirement, though probably for different reasons than her supporters would do that.

“I would make a distinction between power and influence,” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has told Forbes. “Some people have no power really, but they have tremendous influence. You know who they are.” She’s right on that. The powerful are recognized and that’s fine. It’s a way of establishing a marker in history. It’s the everyday people who work in ordinary ways, though, who has undeniable influence in society. The volunteers in our communities who work in schools, churches, soup kitchens, and food banks. Neighborhood organizations and local political leaders shape the quality of life in local communities. I don’t necessarily think Pelosi was referring to ordinary people just living their lives but she should have been. She is a creature of big government, having been raised as the daughter of the Mayor of Baltimore and then her own career.

Pelosi was reluctant to begin Impeachmentpalooza because, as a seasoned pro, she knew the lessons of the Clinton days. She remembers that Democrats benefitted from Clinton’s impeachment in the next election cycle. Clinton actually had a crime that could be pointed to as a reason for impeachment – he lied to a Grand Jury. This sham of a process on one-party votes is over very weak charges. Abuse of power and obstruction of Congress? That’s about as blurry as you can get for charges against a sitting president. We’ll see how long her wave of power lasts.