Earlier in her career, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) never gave any thought to trying to move up to the Senate. Taking the time to campaign throughout California had no appeal for her. “I like the idea of representing San Francisco in the Congress of the United States,” she said. “When I went home, I was home. I didn’t have to travel the state.”

And on another front, Pelosi said she’s not crazy about the extra security assigned to her because of her position but understands the need for it. “I like my freedom. I like my freedom of motion,” she said.

Those are a few nuggets from Pelosi’s interview with CNN’s Larry King, done live-to-tape on Tuesday morning. King’s crew took three hours to set up their gear in the Speaker’s ceremonial office — not since ABC’s Barbara Walters taped her special with Pelosi when she was Speaker-designate was there such an elaborate to-do. CNN sent a crew of 10 and three cameras.

In the interview, King wanted to know what surprised Pelosi about the Speaker’s job, now that she’s been at it for about two months.

“Well, I’m usually not one to be surprised,” Pelosi replied. “I like to be prepared for everything. But I am surprised by the overwhelming show of enthusiasm from across the country from women of all ages — young girls to women my age who say I never thought I would see the day.”

Pelosi also confirmed that she called President Bush to complain about comments from Vice President Cheney. She phoned because of Cheney’s below-the-belt kicks about the drive of Pelosi and other Democrats, including Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), to use the appropriations process as leverage to bring U.S. soldiers home from Iraq and prevent Bush from sending more troops to battle.

House Democrats huddled on Monday to start to map strategy over just how to rejigger Bush’s supplemental defense funding request to give the military everything it needs to protect itself and fight — while not providing money to extend the conflict.

Pelosi made the call to complain about the vice president after Cheney remarked, “If we were to do what Speaker Pelosi and Congressman Murtha are suggesting, all it will do is validate the al Qaeda strategy. That al Qaeda strategy is to break the will of the American people.”

Pelosi’s response: “Well, the president had said to me in a recent visit — actually, two recent visits — that he would not tolerate any undermining of anybody’s patriotism or our intentions to protect the national security of the United States. So I wanted the president to be aware. He said, ‘You let me know if this happens,’ so I wanted to let him know that it had.

“What the vice president said was beneath the dignity of his office and beneath the dignity — the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform, to equate our position with a validation of al Qaeda.”

After the wrap, Pelosi walked King over to her real office suite — turning the heads of some Capitol tourists along the way.

Sweet is the Washington bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it