The house democrats voted for Steny Hoya as house majority leader over Nancy Pelosi's choice of Congressman Murtha who was an unindicted co-conspirator in the abscam scandal a few years back. This was clearly a snub of Pelosi by the democrats. Pelosi, the first female house speaker, is now 0 for 1 as speaker. Now it remains to see who she will appoint as chairman of the house intelligence committee. Some say it will be Alcee Hastings who had been a federal judge before he was impreached for bribery. I don't think she can afford another bloody nose which could happen if she goes with Hastings.
Not hardly. Hoya has been the democrats second-ranked leader for years and was in line for the position. Murtha was trying to leapfrog him into the majority leader post to take avantage of his recent popularity as the first congressman to openly stand up to the president against the war. Pelosi supported him because he was her campaign chair when she ran for majority leader. She owed him. But Hoya has been paying his dues with the rest of the house democrats. They elected Pelosi Speaker of the House by acclaimation which is hardly a bloody nose. The democrats that beat republican incumbents are not liberal democrats but conservative democrats and they signal a shift towards the middle for the democratic party. Pelosi knows this better than anyone because she engineered it. Uhhhh, Marion Barry is not a member of Congress, old feller. And no, neither is Michael Moore. And Teddy is in the Senate. Hard to find a flaming liberal congressman to try to link her to, ain't it?
You can try to put a good face on this if you want, but Pelosi stuck her neck out by throwing her support to Murtha - a bad decision. The rejection of Murtha, primarily by the Blue Dog Democrats, was indeed a bloody nose. There is simply no way around that. I was not speaking of her election as house leader. That is another issue. Clearly she has to be given a lot of credit for the success of the Democrats in the last election, but she would have been happier to see more liberals elected. Pelosi is about as far left as you can get. She is certainly aware of the fact that many of the Blue Dog Democrats will oppose any far left legislation that is dear to her heart. Finally, there are a lot of flaming liberals in the House that she is simpatico with, such as Conyers and Rangel.
She gave public support to Murtha, but she did not back him all too strongly. She didn't play any of the big cards she had at her disposal like threating to take committee seats or anything like that. Anyone who follows politics closely can tell Pelosi didn't put too much weight behind her endorsement.
It was a joke, Red. Alcee Hastings? Marion Barry? Get it? You've stooped to defending Pelosi, now? Is there a bottom you can hit, or is this it? Are you secretly gay hoping to marry your life partner? Do you live on the dole? Is government cheese a dietary staple for you? I don't get it.
This is a political discussion forum and you always seem surprised to find people discussing politics here. And you even seem surprised that I might have an opinion that doesn't agree with yours. Sheesh! I was responding to a post, chief. I think Pelosi's political move here may be more complicated and than BB imagines and possibly shrewd. So we were discussing it. I'm not a Pelosi fan or even a democrat, but I do follow the news and I have opinions. Posting them is what we do here. If there are not two sides to an issue, then there is no debate. If this upsets you, then go find another thread. Do you ever have anything to add to the discussion other than witty quips and personal insults? You know, my grandma always used to say, "The chicken that clucks the loudest is the one that lays the eggs". Hmmm . . . Do you make over $10 million a year? Are you a corporate executive? I don't get it, either. You don't even understand what the conversation was about, do you? I'll try to explain it using small words. We weren't debating gay marriage, government cheese, or the dole. We were talking about what kind of internal politics are playing out in the Democratic party. I wasn't defending Pelosi, Murtha or Hoya. Just talking about them and making some guesses. It's what we do here. Next week it may be about republican politics and I'll have an opinion about that too.
All those words, none of which denied that you were defending that looney bitch. Adding to the topic: Pelosi put her eggs in the Murtha basket and lost. She, in fact, suffered a nasty defeat right out of the box and there's no spin that can alter that fact.
Of course she did not threaten to take committee seats away, since no committee seats (I am assuming you are speaking of chairmanships) have yet been appointed. Secondly, anyone who follows politics knows you don't threaten something like that over what is a relatively minor issue. It is tantamount to using a 2x4 to kill an ant. That is just too big a gun to use in this kind of a situation. You save those when you really need them for something really big. Theatening a chairmanship is also an extremely heavy handed approach and is rarely used for any situation. Pelosi used the kind of influence the situation called for. No more; no less. She backed him publicly and I am fairly certain spoke to other representatives about it, trying to get their support. She felt the House would go along with her because of her positon - that they would not oppose someone they just elected as house speaker. She was wrong.
Hastert used committee chairmenships to establish the leadership he wanted when he rose to power. I remember it well because I was a house Pagr in '99. My Congressional sponsor, Billy Tauzin, benefitted greatly for his ties to Denny. Using influence to garner support among members is a common thing to do for a speaker, and being heavy handed is Pelosi's m.o. If the old shrew wanted Murtha in the leadership she would have pushed harder for him. I disagree. I think she pushed Murtha so she could appear loyal to her allies, but didn't push hard enough to upset the party fabric. Seems like partisan politics at its finest to me.
