Centerfield

Did you see the bit where her staffers said it didn't matter, that people would soon forget about her first major political decision after last Tuesday because this was "just like a high school election"? Being on the outs for the last 12 years has really left them with some bad staff, if that's the best spin they can come up with. The second defense they offer, which is a smidge better, is that Murtha is actually quite conservative on everything except the war. He's pro-gun rights for example. Of course, he's also anti-corruption-reform. One would think that if you've run on a campaign against the "culture of corruption", you'd support a candidate for majority leader who had never appeared to be taking a bribe on an FBI videotape.

Yep. Murtha has enough work handing out military pork.

Its an homage to the newest buzzword: Fighting Dem

Did you see the bit where her staffers said it didn't matter, that people would soon forget about her first major political decision after last Tuesday because this was "just like a high school election"?

Oh, it will be remembered... If Hoyer wins that is.

What about Pelosi's other big early decision: who to install as chair of the Intelligence Committee. She seems bent on passing over a highly respected figure on national security issues for an impeached judge.

Disappointing for centrists? Undoubtedly. I was disappointed too. But on the whole, this is overrated by inside baseball fanatics such as ourselves.

How many folks outside the beltway and blogs do you suppose have heard of either Hoyer or Murtha? Murtha maybe, and if so solely for his anti-war grandstanding. Which gives him far more symbolic value if you want to send a message to those who are BARELY paying attention.

Pragmatic bipartisanship is all well and good, but Pelosi isn't going to give away the store. She's smart enough to know that part of her job includes feeding red meat to the partisans. Both parties have a more radical and partisan wing. Both parties know that they need a sensible governing component and a wing-soothing component. So if the #1 spot goes to one, then it makes good sense for the #2 spot to go to the other. Basically, Pelosi just appointed Murtha to be the shepherd for the left wing of the democratic party. Not a bad choice, since he has an awful lot of experience in congress, and so will be listened to when Pelosi needs him to go talk the ultra-liberals out of the trees after we don't withdraw from Iraq within the fortnight.

Actually not, Brian. I've been reading plenty of complaints by the left wing about Murtha, who disagrees with them on almost every issue except Iraq. So he won't be able to talk them out of the trees on any issue except Iraq.

As far as #1 and #2 go, Speaker-elect Pelosi is the #1 Dem in Congress as far as the public is concerned, so the balance needed is for her.

I agree with your points about inside baseball, though. Very few people in this country could tell you who Steny Hoyer is.

Steny who? (Not kidding, btw.)

I was disappointed too. But on the whole, this is overrated by inside baseball fanatics such as ourselves.

I get the point, but have a hard time grasping it's relevance. Isn't our goal, or shouldn't it be, to discuss those things that most people don't care about? If we only discussed those things they did care about, this would not be a blog about politics.

So he won't be able to talk them out of the trees on any issue except Iraq.

I suspected that Murtha was more right on other issues besides the war, but it was only a suspicion based on his bearing as sort of a grumpy old curmudgeon. It was really only on the issue of Iraq that I foresaw Murtha as being a useful #2. He has the n@me recog and the recog is on the issue that many people think was the driver for change, the Iraq war. So while I'm wrong to have said or implied Murtha has a ton of currency with the left, his currency on the war issue makes him a valuable symbol among the folks Pelosi views as being the ones who brought about the change.

And of course, there are any number of other explanations for why Pelosi might have chosen Murtha without jumping to the easy assumption that she's just a diehard loony-lefter with no eye towards compromise or governance. Maybe she just doesn't want Hoyer to have that kind of power and thinks she can control Murtha better. I just have some reluctance to jump to that sort of "this just goes to show X is the devil" reasoning. Intelligent powerful politicians don't get to be say speaker of the house or President or whatever without understanding and strongly considering strategic mechanics that none of us are privy to. I don't know Steny Hoyer at all, but I still feel comfortable guessing that during his recent time as a #2 type, he had time to think about how much better things would be if he was #1. That could well be the reason why Pelosi is supporting Murtha, because Hoyer served his purpose and now she wants to consolidate her power. Presumably every democratic speaker has visions of Tip O'Neill sugarplums dancing in their head., No one wants to be a short-timer.

Here's something on this subject from a more left-leaning blog I visit. The commentary relates well to the comments made here so far.

I don't have much to add here. My preference for Majority Leader is "None of the Above." And though I'm certainly no fan of Hoyer, Murtha would be worse. To me, Iraq is his only redeeming characteristic. But anyway, my opposition has little to do with issues. First, Murtha says a lot of stupid things on TV and would be a loose cannon more generally. Second, I like Pelosi a lot, but I think competing bases of power is not the worse thing in the world. The Speaker has a lot of power as it is - further consolidation may lead to bad decisions (you need some "no men" around). Finally, Murtha's ethics smell.

The truth is that no one cares and I'd say 99.9999% of the public has no idea who Steny Hoyer is. So this really is a matter of how much power Pelosi will have. And to me, concentration of power correlates highly with stupid decisions.

And to me, concentration of power correlates highly with stupid decisions.

I'm still waiting for my copy ofThe Singular Genius of Committee Decisions to come in the mail. But I think the writing committee is still battling over the table of contents.