Let’s review. Nancy Pelosi became so politically toxic that more than 160,000 television ads featuring Madame Speaker were run in the midterm election. Not all of those were pro-Republican ads, either. Several congressional Democrats ran ads separating themselves from Pelosi, while others strongly pledged to vote against her as speaker.

Her approval amongst independents is just 8%, and Republican strategists spent moths attaching their opponents to her. She was the face of unpopular legislation Democrats rammed through Congress, including ObamaCare and the stimulus package. She is the de facto head of a Congress with just 17% approval.

But totally don’t blame her for electoral losses. She’s completely innocent. Innocent, she tells you!

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she has the “overwhelming support” of fellow Democrats in her bid to become minority leader in the next Congress, and says she’s not to blame for the Democrats’ mid-term debacle.

“We didn’t lose the election because of me,” Ms. Pelosi told National Public Radio in aninterview that aired Friday morning. “Our members do not accept that.”

Instead, the California Democrat attributes the loss of at least 60 seats to high unemployment and “$100 million of outside, unidentified funding.”

“Any party that cannot turn (9.5% unemployment) into political gains should hang up the gloves,” she said.

It had nothing to do with unpopular legislation, a $1.3 trillion deficit, and a Congress Americans view as out-of-touch — a Congress with a 17% approval rating. It was all the economy. Uh huh. As long as Democrats keep telling themselves that, we have a chance to make further gains in 2012.