When Clinton started pressing for better trade relations with China, Pelosi was outraged, said Sandalow, a former San Francisco Chronicle Washington Bureau chief whose unauthorized biography, Madam Speaker, is set to come out in April.

“She felt like she couldn’t be critical of President Bush and not criticize Clinton for doing the same thing,” he said.

Sen. Clinton recounts that she was being criticized for her plan to attend a women’s conference in China because it would be seen as tacit support of China’s human rights record.

“Nancy Pelosi called to tell me that my presence would be a public relations coup for the Chinese,” Clinton wrote.

Eventually, the then-first lady made the trip after President Clinton said in a speech in Wyoming that “The conference presents a significant chance to chart further gains in the status of women.”

The disagreements on China were, however, not such that they prevented Pelosi from going to the White House for the 1994 wedding of Sen. Barbara Boxer’s (D-Calif.) daughter to Hillary Clinton’s brother.

When Hillary Clinton was elected to the Senate in 2000, Pelosi had already been in Congress for 14 years.

Again, the two had little reason to cross paths, observers said. Pelosi was moving into the ranks of House leadership. Clinton put her head down and went to work making sure she was known as the junior senator from New York, not just a former first lady. And House members and senators don’t interact all that much, unless they share some other bond, like being from the same state or chairing a corresponding committee.

Though Pelosi has declined to endorse a candidate, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), a close ally of Pelosi’s, has endorsed Obama — a fact that has caused many to speculate as to whether Pelosi might harbor similar inclinations.

“A lot of Northern Californians want to turn the page” on the Clintons, said Bruce Cain of the University of California’s Washington Center. “I mildly suspect this is where Nancy’s true preference is.”

Cain noted that Pelosi has always been “way to the left” of Sen. Clinton on Pelosi’s signature issue: opposition to the Iraq war.

Sandalow says he doesn’t see the Miller endorsement as a proxy for Pelosi.

But Sandalow said it should put to rest any notion that Pelosi is quietly rooting for Clinton. “I do take it as a sign that she’s not secretly doing everything she can for Hillary Clinton,” he said.

If Clinton is elected, Democrats hold the House and Pelosi remains House Speaker, those close to Pelosi say they will be able to turn to the same Democratic policy establishment for common ground.

“They’ve worked with a lot of the same people,” said Bartholomew, Pelosi’s former chief of staff. “As they’re building their own relationship, there will be people who serve as the bridges.”