Posted on 11/16/2006 12:41:03 PM PST by West Coast Conservative
Yes, I know. Leadership fights on Capitol Hill are the ultimate political insider contests. Voters don’t care about them, and once they are over, they are quickly forgotten.
Having said that, Nancy Pelosi’s decision to pick a public fight with her second in command, Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, is so incomprehensible, so politically stupid that it has raised eyebrows among political journalists and insiders of all type.
For weeks, I have been suggesting that Pelosi will be a lot smarter and more subtle that her conservative critics warned, and that she won’t drive the Democratic bus off the cliff. But now I’m not so sure.
Pelosi’s political antennae appear much less sensitive than I assumed, and if you are a Republican looking for a quick reason to think that you may be able to take back the House in 2008, the incoming Speaker’s intervention in the majority leader race – a race that her candidate lost rather decisively – has to give you some reason for optimism.
Instead of generating front page stories about the Democrats’ agenda, Pelosi has made herself and divisions within her party the story du jour.
In publicly backing Rep. John Murtha – and apparently strong-arming Democrats to support him over Hoyer – Pelosi threw her support to someone who has plenty of ethics baggage and contempt for the reformist agenda that many Democrats, and many Americans, seem to want.
Pelosi doesn’t have to like Hoyer to work with him. Her effort to crush him suggests considerable personal flaws that could come back to haunt her. Just as bad, she has taken a non-story for most people and turned it into a lose-lose proposition for herself.
Now, reporters will have the Pelosi versus Hoyer story to kick around for the next couple of years, and Pelosi will forever have started off her historic speakership with a stinging, and very unnecessary, defeat.
What a gal!
No really? Who woulda guessed?
Couldn't have happened to a nicer girl or guy. For my money, Murtha is an old creep, certainly a fool.
Stupid is as stupid does.......
If this is how Bipartisan Pelosi can be with Steny Hoyer, think of what Bipartisan means when working with President Bush!
This might not be personality driven. It could be that Murtha has the goods on Pelosi, and was threatening her to gain her support.
Frankly, for a move this dumb by Pelosi, it is the only explaination that makes sense.
The most ethical administration ever! Prozac, the San Francisco treat.
Never underestimate your foe, but never overestimate him either.
Democractic nominee for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca), (C), Democratic House Majority Leader nominee Steny Hoyer (D-Md), (R), and Democratic House Majority Whip nominee Re. James Clyburn (D-SC), (L), raise arms following the House Democratic Caucus Leadership elections on Capitol Hill, November 16, 2006. (Larry Downing/Reuters)
Welcome to the Big Leagues, Nancy.
Seems we have another Madline Albright here...
For an encore, maybe she'll put Alcee Hastings in charge of the Intelligence Committee.
I don't think she will but who knows, she might be dumber than I think.
Democractic nominee for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca), and Democratic House Majority Leader nominee Steny Hoyer (D-Md), (C) as Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa) applauds following the House Democratic Caucus Leadership elections on Capitol Hill, November 16, 2006. (Larry Downing/Reuters)
Not ready for prime time.
She lacks GRAVITAS!
Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa), (R), speaks next to Democratic nominee for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca) after losing the vote for House Majority Leader to Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md) while at a news conference after the House Democratic Caucus Leadership elections on Capitol Hill, November 16, 2006. (Larry Downing/Reuters)
Stu is the stupid one here. This was to shut Murtha up. She never supported him. Behind the scenes they knew what the score was and Murtha is just too dumb to know it.
Her antennae are not from Earth.
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