After a few months back in the minority, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi says elections "shouldn't matter as much as they do."

That's what the former House speaker told a Massachusetts crowd Friday in between the raucous budget debate on Capitol Hill. Talking about the importance of shared values, Pelosi seemed to urge Republicans to moderate their views so that the space between the parties is not so vast. Then, she imagined, elections wouldn't be so determinative.

"To my Republican friends, take back your party, so that it doesn't matter so much who wins the election because we have shared values about, again, the education of our children, the growth of our economy, how we defend our country," she said.