skippy the bush kangaroo

Thursday, November 16, 2006

hoyer gonna keep 'em down on the farm, murtha they've seen pelosi?

house dems settled the "murtha v. hoyer" debate once and for all, elected steny hoyer as house leader in an overwhelming vote. reuters:

a week after winning back control of the u.s. congress, divided democrats in the house defied incoming speaker nancy pelosi on thursday and elected steny hoyer to be majority leader, a democratic party aide said.

pelosi, a california liberal, had endorsed rep. john murtha of pennsylvania, who helped lead the charge against the iraq war that was a key factor in races for the house of representatives and the senate.

the aide said the vote behind closed doors was 149-86.
rep. pelosi endorsed anti-war stalwart jack murtha who was still dogged by ethics questions (tho, to be honest, he was never indicted or even censured for his nominal role in the abscam fiasco of over 20 years ago).

but hoyer was elected, fair and square, by the dem members of the house.

the folks at dkos, and others in blogtopia (yes! we coined that phrase!) including our own cookie jill, also endorsed murtha.

tho others, including ourselves, while big fans of rep. murtha's unabashed anti-war stance, thought it was wise for someone with even the appearance of a taint of a possible connection to something hinky (abscam, voting against ethics reforms) to not be involved w/the beginning of a dem. leadership whose campaign platform was anti-corruption.

and it looks like it's all over but the spinning. we are sure this will come off as a loss for pelosi in the mmm. but what else is new?
posted by skippy at 9:41 AM |

6 Comments:

Interesting fact. Drug Policy Alliance rate both Pelosi and Hoyer 100%. Murtha rated 33%.
commented by Anonymous whig, 11:18 AM PST  
Six of one, half dozen of the other. Either would have been fine with me, and I'm sure Pelosi was endorsing Murtha as a favor for his support during the minority leader race.
commented by Blogger Carl, 11:21 AM PST  
I didn't support Murtha. I appreciate the credibility and energy he lent the anti-war movement, but he is far and away not a progressive and I want the progressive caucus to dominate the House for a while. This one was a win in my book.
commented by Blogger DBK, 11:53 AM PST  
Yeah, what you said.
commented by Blogger The Heretik, 1:08 PM PST  
I didn't feel like I had a horse in this race, so I'm neither disappointed nor elated. I'll be satisfied if Hoyer takes his new position seriously...
commented by Blogger Mimus Pauly, 2:48 PM PST  
i actually think it was more personal than politics...reports are that pelosi and hoyer's relationship is "strained" at best.
commented by Blogger skippy, 3:21 PM PST  

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