Nancy Pelosi is the ultimate expert of details, a strong-willed leader and a master of how to run a political machine.

That's author Rochelle Schweizer's major findings on the first woman speaker of the U.S. House as described in his new book "She's the Boss: The Disturbing Truth of Nancy Pelosi."

Schweizer says there's one more ingredient that makes Pelosi who she is. She is an expert at how to raise money.

"That is probably the biggest thing," Schweizer said. "She's been able to tap California gold."

Schweizer says Pelosi's ability to generate funds is almost without equal.

"Her money hustling ability has been I would say unprecedented. If [you] look at between 1990 and 2000, Congressman Dick Gephardt raised a measly $2.5 million. In that same time frame, Pelosi raised an amazing $140 million," Schweizer said.

"She gets the money from the Silicon Valley in California, and then she shuttles it to tight races around the country. She's been charging her troops to divvy up the funds. Those who are not in tight races have been instructed to send money from their war chests to candidates that are in tight races," Schweizer added.

Schweizer adds that Pelosi's fundraising is successful because she has stayed "on message."

The congressional tenure of Nancy Pelosi has shown that there is more to the San Francisco Democrat's fund-raising ability. She was the product of a political family.

Pelosi's father was Thomas D'Alessandro, a congressman on the Appropriations Committee and then Baltimore mayor for 12 years.

"She saw up close how the favor power works, how the reciprocity for favors doled out, and favors called in at election time. She actually worked at the constituency desk in her home. She learned the art of getting things done by being able to call in favors," Schweizer said.

Schweizer's assessment is that Pelosi's early strategy was successful.

"As a leader, what she did is that she tried to inject what she learned about 'boss politics' into the legislative process. That worked for her early on. She took on issues that were not real controversial and that gave a lot of her moderate cover," Schweizer observed.

Schweizer asserts that Obama's inauguration as president changed Pelosi's attitude about occupying the speaker's chair.

"Once Obama got into office, all of that dropped. They said, 'Now is the time for the left to reach their visions of Utopia and to shove through big government legislation," Schweizer continued. "They did climate change and health care; that was the center-stage item.

"What we've seen is that she has not been as effective on her big government issues because at the end of the day, I think Americans just don't want the government to grow that big," Schweizer stated.

Still, Pelosi's performance as speaker has to be evaluated by the programs that have made it through to the president's desk.

"She's still been effective in the sense that she was able to shove that legislation (the health care bill) even though polls showed, I think one Gallup Poll said that 55 percent of the American people wanted to shelve health care, but she was able to push it through in the end," Schweizer said.

"I mean, the health care program represents massive entitlements. If the Republicans take back the House, she may roll it back. We'll see," Schweizer added. "I think she's left her mark, but how much is hard to tell."

Schweizer observes that one of Pelosi's skills has been taking the far-left sentiment of her San Francisco district and making that agenda part of a national consensus.

"Pelosi comes from one of the most left-leaning districts in the country. How she has been able to take the identity and objectives of that district to mainstream America is quite amazing. This is nothing the Founding Fathers had hoped would happen, I don't think. So, we'll see long-term how effective that has been," Schweizer said.

"Again, her success in this area comes from the donor base. Again, it's about money. If you look at races that are close around the country and she leans on candidates that to get any pork they want, get campaign contributions. Again her money comes from the left base so she's been able to push her agenda as strongly as she can," Schweizer explained.

Schweizer emphasized that Obama's election made the difference in how Pelosi pursued her agenda, but that push may come with a price.

"With Obama in the White House she's been more aggressive. Now, a lot of the moderates who went along and weren't completely happy about it are running for cover," Schweizer added.

The speaker is the third highest constitutional officer in the United States. According to the succession amendment to the Constitution, the speaker's position is the second post in line behind the vice president.

Some political analysts say this much power brings a "fear factor." Schweizer opens the book with these observations about Pelosi's tenacity.

"Pelosi's influence on Washington is unmistakable. Those who work with her say she is 'strategic, shrewd, tenacious, and driven.' She is also ruthless," Schweizer wrote.

"As Politico quoted a Democratic insider, Pelosi 'will put a bullet in the head of anyone she needs to. … She'll do anything it takes to keep her majority, anything.'

"I think she does have the fear element. But even more than fear, people know how tough she can be," she stated.

"We saw that with the health care reform bill." Schweizer said. "You may recall that Obama was for the Cadillac Tax and she wasn't. The Cadillac Tax would have hurt the unions because it would have struck them in their cushy health care plans.

"She really went to bat for the unions. While she went off to Detroit, walking around cheering the industry for all they had done with our taxpayer dollars, the president was back at the White House wrangling with labor leaders over the Cadillac Tax. They told him basically that you may support it, but we won't show up for the November election. I would say that in that context she took on the president and won," Schweizer observed.

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