Pelosi pushing for Murtha, but will Hoyer win?

[Stylerod]

Actually I think Hoyer is more liberal than Murtha. I agree with what Motivez said but I do think Murtha's past and his penchant for exchanging pork projects for money also had something to do with it.

[Thorgrim]

Originally Posted by 6SpeedTA95

Exactly!

Actually its completely wrong, Henry Waxman voted for Hoyer, he is a big liberal, so did others

If you think there are 148 moderate-to-conservative Democrats in the house

the whole "there was a conservative not liberal mandate" is total BS:

The point about conservatism not being the decisive factor in the Democrats' win is a dead-on point, and Morris misses the mark in his column.

Of the Democratic pickups only 5 max can it be said that the candidates' conservatism played any role in the victory. There's NC 11, where Shuler is well-positioned to hold the seat because of his "mountain values" talk. There's IN 09, where Baron Hill was helped as much by his past experience representing the CD as his conservatism. There's PA 10, where Don Sherwood cost the GOP the seat as much as Chris Carney won it for them. (That said, he ran a strong, values-centric campaign.) And IN 08, where Ellsworth was by far the strongest nominee because of his conservatism... though, you are correct that a more moderate Dem could have held the seat given the statewide and nat'l environment. You could also make the argument for Tim Mahoney in FL 16, even though he won only because of Mark Foley's misconduct.

But there are 9 other seats where not only did the Dems' not emphasize their conservatism, but actively advertised lefty viewpoints. Take Steve Kagen, for example. He won in a 57% Bush district despite taking positions well to the left of his district on foreign policy and health care. Or Carol Shea-Porter and Paul Hodes, who ran on discontent to the Iraq war - not conservative positions at all. Zack Space isn't conservative, nor did he actively advertise himself as such in OH 18. Neither did Nancy Boyda in her surprise KS 02 victory. Conservatism played little to no role in Nick Lampson, Gabby Giffords or Harry Mitchell's victories as well. And if you count KY 03 (which is a 50-50 district), John Yarmuth embraced many liberal positions he took when writing for an alt-weekly paper.

So this by no means was a mandate for Dem conservatism..... in most cases, they took advantage of ballot blunders and other ethical snafus by Republicans, plus the uniquely favorable environment for Dems.

-From republican realclearpolitics.com

2/3rds of the incoming house members are progressives

In the Senate, our new members:
Sherrod Brown is a liberal
Whitehouse is a flaming liberal
Jon Tester is so liberal he wants to repeal the entire patriot act
Amy K in Minnesota is a liberal
Cardin is a liberal
Menendez is as partisan a Dem as you get
McCaskill wasn't the first choice of the DSCC because she was viewed as too liberal for Missouri
Jim Webb is being labeled by conservative websites as so populist from his latest post-campaign speeches he's actually a raging Marxist
Bob Casey knocked off the most conservative member in the Senate, and he is a populist whose only conservative value is pro-life, i guess you could say he's a slightly left of center moderate

All these victories by liberals yet there is ABSOLUTELY NO MANDATE for any remotely liberal legislation...

[AVengeance]

She never expected Murtha to win. What happened was carefully scripted, to make the republicans feel like the far-left democrats weren't getting everything they wanted.

[Stylerod]

Originally Posted by AVengeance

She never expected Murtha to win. What happened was carefully scripted, to make the republicans feel like the far-left democrats weren't getting everything they wanted.

I doubt it. Hell, looking at their voting records I would say Hoyer is a lot more liberal than Murtha. Check out this NYT story.

November 17, 2006
Editorial
Speaker Pelosi Tempts Disaster

Nancy Pelosi has managed to severely scar her leadership even before taking up the gavel as the new speaker of the House. First, she played politics with the leadership of the House Intelligence Committee to settle an old score and a new debt. And then she put herself in a lose-lose position by trying to force a badly tarnished ally, Representative John Murtha, on the incoming Democratic Congress as majority leader. The party caucus put a decisive end to that gambit yesterday, giving the No. 2 job to Steny Hoyer, a longtime Pelosi rival.

But Ms. Pelosi’s damage to herself was already done. The well-known shortcomings of Mr. Murtha were broadcast for all to see — from his quid-pro-quo addiction to moneyed lobbyists to the grainy government tape of his involvement in the Abscam scandal a generation ago. The resurrected tape — feasted upon by Pelosi enemies — shows how Mr. Murtha narrowly survived as an unindicted co-conspirator, admittedly tempted but finally rebuffing a bribe offer: “I’m not interested — at this point.”

Mr. Murtha would have been a farcical presence in a leadership promising the cleanest Congress in history. Ms. Pelosi should have been first to realize this, having made such a fiery campaign sword of her vows to end Capitol corruption. Instead, she acted like some old-time precinct boss and lost the first test before her peers.

As incoming speaker, Ms. Pelosi will be dogged by skepticism — from within the party and without — about her political smarts and her ability to deliver a galvanized agenda.

It was a no-brainer for the caucus to end the misguided fight for Mr. Murtha, who belittled the need for reform. Now the pressure is even greater for Speaker-elect Pelosi to recover by leading the House to something actually worth fighting for — starting with credible anticorruption strictures. For this she needs gaffe-wary advisers, among them Mr. Hoyer, who has his own questionable record of flourishing in big-money politics. The new majority — led by a presumably wiser speaker — must realize by now that intramural vendetta is hardly a substitute for productive government.

[Thorgrim]

notice, editorial, and you didn't cite the author

editorialists love to make stories out of whatever is there

Whatever happened to Kerry's comments ruining the Democrats chances, ALL the (nonliberal) editorialists were sure of that

Why isn't that on CNN everyday, I mean surely the minimum wage bill will never pass because of his botched joke

[Stylerod]

Originally Posted by Thorgrim

notice, editorial, and you didn't cite the author

editorialists love to make stories out of whatever is there

Whatever happened to Kerry's comments ruining the Democrats chances, ALL the (nonliberal) editorialists were sure of that

Why isn't that on CNN everyday, I mean surely the minimum wage bill will never pass because of his botched joke

They didn't have the name for some reason. Not sure why. Here is the link though.

Speaker Pelosi Tempts Disaster - New York Times

Kerry's comments just reminded everyone why he is a joke. No more, no less.

The general consensus, except for people who feel the Democratic leadership is infallible (like you), is that Pelosi made a mistake in choosing this battle for Murtha. She was embarrassed and now it's over. No big deal really. I just replied to AVengeance's post saying this was somehow "scripted" to happen. When it obviously wasn't.

[Thorgrim]

John Kerry is the standard bearer for the Democratic Party, remember, he was our last presidential candidate

And I love how you believe the same people who told you Ned Lamont would be the best thing for America, and the NYTimes stories about the wiretapping and bank transfers were also wonderful for America