We’ll be engaging in some inside baseball over the next few weeks. First up are the House leadership elections on Thursday. At the top of the card is the election of the number two position of Majority Leader. It is featuring John Murtha of Pennsylvania and Steny Hoyer of Maryland. It puts every member in a very uncomfortable position, as no one wants to piss off either of them. Hoyer has more votes going in, but that may be about to change:
Speaker-in-waiting Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) threw her support behind Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) for majority leader Sunday, giving a significant boost to Murtha in his race against Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).
Pelosi narrowly won her position of Minority Leader 118-95 over Hoyer back in 2001. Murtha acted as her campaign manager.
I am having trouble giving a shit who wins this battle, as I see both Murtha and Hoyer as deeply flawed. Murtha has made his career in the minority by using his powerful ranking position on the Appropriations Defense Subcommittee to trade Democratic votes to the Republicans in a game of extortion. If you are a Democrat and want to save that air force base in your district, you better find a vote to give to Murtha that he can sell to the Republicans. It’s an ugly business and Murtha does it well. It makes me sick.
As for Hoyer, well…see this.
If I have to choose, I will choose Murtha. But I am under no illusions about John Murtha. Just because he has credibility on issues of the military doesn’t make him good on other issues. I give him the nod because Pelosi wants him, because he projects a strong image, and because he wants out of Iraq now and Hoyer doesn’t.
But, actually, I don’t really care that much.