The father of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Tommy D’Alesandro Jr., served as mayor of Baltimore. But, to hear his daughter tell it, he was also "mayor" of Washington, D.C. When Rep. Tommy D’Alesandro, D-Md., served in Congress, the nation’s capital lacked "home rule." Congress served as a sort of super city council over Washington, D.C. Congress even set up key committees devoted to overseeing Washington, D.C. D’Alesandro chaired the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the District of Columbia. Pelosi says her father "did not like" that he was often referred to as the Washington, D.C., "mayor," just because he controlled the purse strings.