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.
perhaps the issue is not Murtha or Hoyer, but making sure Pelosi gets what she wants – enable her to crack the whip as she sees fit…
That’s the way I see it. I agree with Booman that in a vacuum I really wouldn’t give a damn between Hoyer and Murtha, both of them are at the far right of the Democratic party. In this particular race though, I see Murtha as someone who will support Pelosi and Hoyer as someone who will undermine her whenever it’s politically expedient for him. And at this point I believe in Pelosi as much as all but a few reps in Congress and want to give her a chance to position us well for 2008. Hoyer as Majority Leader will mean 2 years of stories about Democrats who can’t get along with each other enough to govern effectively, and we don’t need that now.
A good call by Pelosi. She needs an “enforcer”, who can talk the tough line and leave her to do her “classy lady” act. Every commander needs a master sargent, and Murtha is typecast for the role. He’s loyal to her, which Hoyer most definitely is not. Murtha’s military cred is unassailable, as the Repubs discovered to their dismay. He listens to the brass and they listen to him. Putting Murtha there sends a message to the military, both the brass and the rank-and-file, that the Dems are on their side.
With his ethics problems and penchant for pork-barrel politics, anything that keeps Murtha away from the Appropriations committee is a good thing. This is someone who has demonstrated clearly in the past that he can’t be trusted with financial decisions. If Hoyer beats Murtha for Majority Leader, it would put both men in positions to do serious damage to the party during the next term IMO.
Murtha for one reason only: Iraq.
Your comment about not being able to get too excited about either of these choices really hit home with me. Let me explain.
Yesterday, whlie watching John McCain on Meet the Press make the ludicrous statement that he thinks the best solution for Iraq is to actually SENT MORE U.S. troops there.
With all due respect to Mr. McCain, and as a military
veteran myself, it seems we have disrespected out U.S. servicemembers quite enough by needlessly sending them off to die and to be maimed, all for no good reason, and all based on lies. The last thing we need to do is even more of the same.
With all due respect to Mr. Murtha’s tremendous contributions to this country as a veteran and military expert, to me that does not carry too much weight to me in this leadership battle. Why? Because, while Mr. Murtha may have provided Democrats with a highly credible ally in terms of the well-deserved criticism of Bush’s unnecssary invasion and occupation of Iraq, the last thing this country needs at this particular point in our history is even more military influence over our foreign policies.
It would seem to me, again with all due respect to the Defense Department and our brave men and women who have selflessly decided to serve their country and put their lives on the line, that we need to start taking less of a militant and less of a military attitude about how to go about affecting positive change in this world, not more.
First, I strongly support Murtha’s candidacy. That he did some horse-trading to bring bacon home to a very poor part of PA doesn’t bother me one bit. It’s what his constituents elect him to do, and it’s how the system works. It’s not like he was taking it for himself, like the Thugs were. Let’s not be too goody-two-shoes here.
Second, Hoyer is AIPAC’s candidate. Among the big changes that are going to have to be mader if we are ever to get out of the mess we made in Iraq is a change in our relationship with Israel. Israel is the dog wagging the American tail. Murtha puts America’s interest first. Murtha provides a lot of cover for those Dems who might not otherwise be able to stand up to the Israel lobby with respect to settlement with the Palestinians. Murtha keeps the ‘what are we getting for our sacrifice’ up front and centre. He’s blunt enough to ask the Israeli’s, what have they done for us, lately.
Just wondering…The elections are this Thursday? How can that happen when 10 House seats are still undecided? 10 votes could have defeated Pelosi last time around.
great question, and I don’t know the answer.
It is really sad to this reader that only a week after the elections, the best choices the Dems can envision for House leadership positions are simply more of the same.
It would be great if some new blood not beholdin to K street we allowed to emerge and hold sway. But, like I’ve said many times, I am very naive about this political stuff.