Anyone besides me not care a whit about the "battle" for House Majority Leader? Anyone besides me think it's really insignificant that Speaker Pelosi's choice wasn't the one selected?
I can't decide whether it's the Republican spin machine cranking up on about the only thing they have left to talk about, or the MSM being, as always, eager to talk about Democratic Party dissension, or just the familiar groupthink that chronically infects the Washington news bureaus.
I'm glad that a guy who evidently has so many ethics problems didn't get the job. That's better for the Party, the House, and the country in the long run. So Nancy Pelosi owed Jack Murtha a favor or two, and made a public show of support for him to as payback. It's hard for me to believe that she didn't know that she couldn't push this one through -- you don't get to where she is without being able to count noses.
I don't see this as loss of power for her. She won the speakership unanimously, and the real clout of that job lies in handing out committee assignments and deciding which proposed bills (and investigations, oh please, oh please) get pushed forward.
We've seen, over the past six years, what happens when the party in power moves in lockstep. It's a disaster, no doubt about it. Let's stop with the handwringing over a little Democratic squabbling, and get on with the job, shall we?
3 comments:
One of the talk show hosts on Air America (I think it was Rachael Maddow) said yesterday that she thought that Pelosi knew full well that Murtha couldn't get elected and that's the reason it was safe for her to endorse him as a payback for his position on the Iraq war. She didn't want him in the position, but it was a way to pat him on the back and say thanks for focusing the democrats on pulling out of Iraq for the election.
Normally the speaker tries to stay neutral because they have to work with whomever gets elected, but she's had her tensions with Hoyer so she broke with precedent and endorsed one nominee over another in a precedent breaking move. Thus giving Hoyer a slap and Murtha a pat on the head in the same move.
Quite different than the way the republicans do it. (I threw this last sentence in just to pay back Brendan for all the Fs he would have given those poor struggling freshmen learning to write.) LOL
Hey I forgot to sign my name and I'm not anonymous.
Hah! You didn't manage to misspell "than," so you've only achieved minor irritation.
Thanks (I think) for letting me know that I'm in tune with the thinking of the punditocracy.
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