Murtha or Hoyer as majority leader

Because that is exactly what he is. There is the old line that there are really three parties in Washington: Republicans, Democrats and Appropriators. Murtha is definitely an appropriator. And you succeed as an appropriator by slapping backs, trading favors and being a good ol boy. Murtha is a backroom dealer at heart.

 

It's Hoyer

 

Good thing Pelosi absorbed this lesson, at this juncture.

She was sprinting towards Fantasyland.

Fortunately, the House Dems reined her in.

Grateful for small favors.

 

Hoyer seems like somebody would would be better able to build a consensus, which is more in the job description of a Majority Leader. He seems much more effective at inside baseball, which is why he is the better choice. Murtha speaking out last year was something which needed to be said, but that wouldn't make him an effective choice for majority leader.

 

Wasn't even close. 149-86.

 

Your Holiness -
You have a strong Speaker. She got elected unanimously. Nothing happens in the House that she doesn't want to have happen. Newt was the perfect example of what, I think, you mean as a strong Speaker, and there were people conspiring against his sorry ass for three years. And Hastert was a Delay sock puppet.
Pelosi will be fine.

 

One of the cable nets was mentioning yesterday that the animosity between Pelosi and Hoyer goes back more than 40 years, to someplace they were both interning while in college (her dad was mayor of Baltimore at the time). He took her on for minority leader two years ago and lost. Now they're even.
If the two of them can agree to bury the hatchet (or at least store it out of handy reach), this'll all be forgotten by January.

 

So who's the majority whip now? Has that election been held yet?

 

Not so fine when her choice for speaker gets his ass kicked by 63 votes.
Nice start, Nancy. Now go figured out how you're going to get Heath Shuler and the rest of the moderates and conservatives who gave you your majority how to toe the line on abortion.

 

James Clyburn of SC, first African-American in that job.
And hondo? Please don't post something like that without thinking. No anti-choice legislation is going to come to the floor of the House. It would die in committee, either Rules or Judiciary. None. Shuler won't propose it, anyway. He ran and he got elected as a Democrat -- read the Asheville paper -- even though the district knew that Taylor's pork parade would come to a stop. Starting in January, Pelois runs the House. Shuler does what he's told. Period.

 

Mmmmmm....gridlock.

 

Let's wait and see ... I think Shuler's allowed to vote his conscience. I think that's somewhere in the Constitution.