She's the first female Speaker of the House.

But you know that. How could you not?

She's also the first Speaker of the House who almost stole the show.

When the main act is the president of the United States, that takes some doing.

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President Bush, before beginning his State of the Union Address, was ever the gentleman by acknowledging her new position and then graciously put icing on the cake by referencing Pelosi's politician father and the pride he would feel if he could see his daughter now.

Madam Speaker seemed touched and flushed and, if she weren't a tough, old school Democrat politician, I might be tempted to add embarrassed at the personal attention at such an important constitutionally required event. She smiled, and giggled and scrunched her face a bit and, ever media savvy, even managed a touch of ''humble.''

Then the show began: the president making one of his best speeches in quite a while and while the focus was to be on him and what he was proposing for our country, it became a tandem performance, with Nancy Pelosi almost stealing the show.

Madam Speaker at first astonished viewers and then – depending on your point of view, either entertained them or distracted them or both.

For me, it was both.

Picture this. The president is at the podium speaking. Seated behind him, and at a slightly higher level, are Vice President Dick Cheney and the new House Speaker Pelosi.

The president and vice president were dressed as men do – suit, shirt and tie. Nothing unusual.

But, now that there's a woman up there, we're going to be subjected to details as to her attire and grooming because – well, because she's female and that's what we do with women in the public eye. We may not like it but that's the way it is. If you doubt that, just ask Katie Couric.

As for Madam Speaker that evening, we found out, if listening to Fox News before the speech, that she had been wearing a purple outfit but then changed into the pale green suit. When asked why the change, Brit Hume related that Madam Speaker said it was because she had gotten a spot of chocolate on the outfit and so changed.

That's the level of political coverage we have in our future.

But, there's more. Ah yes, more, and it's all Madam Speaker's fault. Now, Nancy Pelosi is nothing if not media savvy. If you have any doubts, consider her use of her grandchildren as props when she was named speaker.

All that ''grandmother talk'' was staged for a purpose and anyone with any degree of honesty could see right through it – – granny running the house and running the country too – and all that.

Gag me.

She has always dressed for the camera in beautiful, expensive clothes, immaculate makeup – and a pretty nice face under it – good-looking hair and smart manicures and top-notch footwear. It doesn't hurt that she's a multi-millionaire and can afford the good looks.

But for someone so experienced and media savvy, what was the problem with her eyes and mouth? You'd think she'd have known better.

As George Bush was speaking, my eyes became glued to Pelosi, sitting behind his left shoulder.

The woman never stopped blinking and moving her mouth.

At first, I thought it was my imagination or that I was being too picky. But, no. She blinked and blinked and blinked. I checked Vice President Cheney; he hardly blinked, probably two or three for every 20 of hers. Even the president, who was talking and talking and talking, hardly blinked.

Then I noticed Pelosi's mouth. At first, she did a typical woman thing, what a woman of a certain age does just after she puts on lipstick, a slight puckering, a slight rubbing of the lips together and a quick run of the tongue over the front teeth to be sure there are no smudges on the enamel.

But it never stopped. What was it? Gum? A mint? I doubt that. Nerves? She's too experienced for that. Dry mouth from medication? Could be; there are many drugs women of that age take that have dry mouth as a side effect. Loose dentures? Hard to believe.

Maybe, she just has facial tics and that's one of them. It may have been the first time she was on camera for such a long time, saying nothing and having to maintain a perky, interested look – and the tedium just took over.

But what about the eyes? Ah well.

Nancy's eyes have long been the topic of speculation about surgical enhancement. They are s-o-o-o-o big and s-o-o-o-o wide open and her brows are s-o-o-o-o high and arched. Is that natural? Only Madam Speaker knows for certain.

However, really wide open eyes force increased blinking to keep the eyeballs moist. But contact lenses that get dry can cause excessive blinking too. But then, there are many medications that cause dry eyes with resulting excess blinking. But, then again, so can ''dry eyes'' caused by – ahem – age.

Nancy Pelosi is very attractive but a spring chicken, she is not.

Regardless the reason, Nancy Pelosi's blinks stole the show. I realized it the next day when media buzzed with the blinks and twitches and some actually tallied the total numbers.

It never ceases to amaze me how we have politicians who are presented to the public as semi-gods and we believe the PR because, after all, we see them on television all spiffed up and speechified and they usually look and sound pretty good.

Until. Until Nancy Pelosi, who in her debut, only had to sit, occasionally stand or clap, but say nothing and look pleasant for less than an hour.

And she couldn't pull it off. Sorry Nancy. Those feet are really made of clay even if your shoes are pricey.

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