As soon as any new party takes over Congress, or the White House, it is customary to announce impending signs of failure. Fortunately, as Professor Schaff noted, Nancy Pelosi made it easy. From the AP by way of the American News:
WASHINGTON - Democrats embraced Rep. Nancy Pelosi as the first woman House speaker in history on Thursday, then quickly snubbed her, selecting Steny Hoyer of Maryland as majority leader against her wishes.
"Let the healing begin," Pelosi, D-Calif., said after Hoyer had eased past her preferred candidate, Rep. John Murtha, a prominent opponent of the war in Iraq. The secret-ballot vote for Hoyer was 149-86. She was chosen by acclamation.
Now Hoyer didn't exactly "ease past" Murtha. He blew past him. This was a very stupid move by Pelosi. It raises serious questions about her leadership and judgment right off the bat, and means that she must now work with a second in command whom she tried to torpedo. Here is how Howard Fineman puts it:
If Speaker-to-be Pelosi is going to succeed as Speaker of the House, she had better learn—fast—from the fiasco known as the Hoyer-Murtha Race. She violated every conceivable rule of Boss-like behavior: she lost, she lost publicly, she lost after issuing useless and unenforceable threats to people she barely had met, knowing (or having reason to know) that they would tell the world about her unsuccessful arm-twisting. And she lost big: by 149 to 86 votes.
It's worse than that, at least in the short run. Dena Bunis, of the Orange County Register (hat tip to Kausfiles), has this:
Inside the room where the election was being held, there were boxes for members to drop their secret ballots. Pelosi and her crew watched as people voted. Some members actually brought fellow lawmakers with them when they marked their ballots so they could prove to Pelosi that they did vote for Murtha. And because the Murtha vote ended up being so small, the Pelosi forces can count almost down to the last ballot who voted for Murtha and who for Hoyer.
So Pelosi has split the new House Majority Caucus into two sides, each with a reason to be suspicious of one another. Good work, considering that she is not quite Speaker yet.
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