Unofficial John Murtha Compendium--Day 2

[Demeter]

FIRST, A TESTIMONIAL FROM A FELLOW CONGRESSMAN:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-john-b-larson/why-i-support-murtha-for-_b_34093.html

Why I Support Murtha for Majority Leader by Rep. John B. Larson (D-Connecticut)

I've traveled with Jack Murtha to Iraq three times to learn more about the region, talk with our diplomats and military leaders, and meet with our troops. Those visits are the main reason that I opposed the War in Iraq since its inception. But many Americans still believed the spin coming from the Pentagon and needed a decorated war veteran and one of our nation's strongest supporters of the military to speak up.

Traditionally, Jack has shied away from publicity. But last November, he felt compelled to publicly denounce the War in Iraq and offer a plan that will bring our troops home and promote stability in the Middle East. His efforts infused enthusiasm in Democrats across the country who opposed the war because one of our party's foremost authorities on defense issues was speaking out for their cause. I believe that Jack's outspoken opposition to the war during his travels across the country resonated with Americans and resulted in a Democratic victory on election day.

Future Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has unified Democrats like never before. Soon, House Democrats will meet to officially choose her as our nominee for Speaker and elect the remaining members of our leadership. I will be voting for Jack Murtha for Majority Leader because of his outstanding leadership qualities developed in the Marines and honed during more than thirty years in the House of Representatives. I will also be voting for him because America has listened to Jack Murtha and embraced his message by electing a Democratic Congress. House Democrats have two outstanding choices for Majority Leader and whatever the outcome, I know that we will remain united. But Jack Murtha's leadership over the past year has energized Democrats across the nation and makes him the best choice to be Majority Leader.
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FOLLOWED BY ANALYSIS OF THE POLITICS FROM LAWRENCE O'DONNELL--HUFFINGTON POST COLUMNIST/BLOGGER

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence-odonnell/a-permanent-majority_b_34114.html

Which brings me to my next big prediction in answer to the question of how long will the Democrats hold the House?

This is a tricky one because so much turns on how good a Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be. The early signs are not good. The day after she backs Arianna's hero John Murtha for majority leader, the Washington Post goes after her with both barrels--a front page story about Murtha and his history of ethics problems, including (unindicted) involvement in Abscam, and an editorial slamming Murtha and endorsing Steny Hoyer for the job. When was the last time the Post made an endorsement in a party leadership race? Ever? There's no possible win here for Pelosi. If Hoyer wins, the new Speaker gets publicly humiliated on her first vote. If Murtha wins, the Pelosi promise of "the most ethical Congress in history" will fall apart quickly with Sean Hannity running Murtha's Abscam FBI video endlessly.

But the damage Murtha's ethics history can do to the Pelosi Speakership is nothing compared to what Alcee Hastings can do. Pelosi is feuding with her California colleague Jane Harman who is in line to become chairwoman of the House Intelligence Committee. Pelosi wants someone else. Next in line is Alcee Hastings, a member of the Black Caucus, which is championing his candidacy for Intelligence chairman. No one outside of the Black Caucus would be happy to see Alcee Hastings in a chairmanship. I first saw Alcee Hastings in his impeachment trial in the Senate.

Hastings was a Florida federal judge who was indicted for extortion and bribery and was found not guilty by a jury. A judicial panel then recommended his removal from the bench, which, for a federal judge means impeachment in the House and trial in the Senate. Hastings was convicted by the Senate in 1989 and removed from the bench, whereupon he ran for Congress and won. That's where Alcee's sweet revenge story should end. But Pelosi is actually considering him for the chairmanship.

If Rove had been smart enough to make Alcee Hastings a household term during the campaign, the Democrats would not have won as many seats. If Pelosi makes Hastings a chairman, Rove won't miss the shot this time. The Democrats would instantly take over as the party of corruption. Voters would get a terrible more-of-the-same feeling right off the bat and their throw-the-bums-out attitude would not subside. The first woman Speaker could be a two-year story.

But if Pelosi keeps Hastings and Murtha at bay and runs a smooth ship for a few years, the new Democratic majorities in the statehouses could deliver the kind of gerrymandering--I mean redistricting--after the 2010 census that the Democrats need to get another generational hold on the House. Not forty years like last time, but twenty years is not out of the question. I'm not talking permanent majority here. Only a genius like Karl Rove could get anyone to buy an idea like that.

[Demeter]

1. Lawrence O'Connell makes some other political points:

I haven't had the time to type a word for HuffPo since the election because I've been too busy gloating on TV. Having predicted every Senate election correctly as well as the outcome in the House and the governors' races, I have been taking every opportunity on MSNBC and the McLaughlin Group to say a few self-congratulatory words and sit back and watch my Republican counterparts' befuddlement.


In my latest round of this, Joe Scarborough asked why I knew who was going to win the elections and Karl Rove, the genius, Karl Rove, "Bush's Brain," didn't know. By the way, how smart do you have to be to be Bush's brain? I didn't want to give up my secret for election predicting. I like being one of the few pundits to accurately predict all the Senate races. Fellow geniuses Eleanor Clift and Mark Shields got it right too, but they're not the gloating type and they never appear on MSNBC, so I was hoping to create a sort of Rove-level genius aura for myself, at least among MSNBC talking heads. You know, maybe "Olbermann's Brain," something like that. But I couldn't come up with a Rove-like rap about metrics because I had never actually used the word in a sentence, so, to avoid the horror of dead air, I went to my fallback position--the truth.

I admitted that the secret of my election pundit genius was public polls. Any study--okay, 'study' is too strong a word--an occasional glance at the publicly available polls during the two weeks before the election told you exactly who was going to win. When a challenger like Claire McCaskill was running a tie at 47 or 48 against incumbent Jim Talent, that poll is telling you that the challenger is going to beat the incumbent. It helped that I happen to know that Talent never polled above 50 against McCaskill and it helped that I had seen McCaskill campaign and knew she was a great campaigner. That's what provoked me to predict she was going to win months ago. But the rest of the predictions I made were based on nothing but public polls.

The MSM loves the image of Rove as genius almost as much as Rove does, but, showing no embarrassment for their years of dutiful transcribing of Rove's notion that he was building a permanent Republican majority, they are now moving on to the first-woman-Speaker story in which the word genius has yet to appear.

[sandnsea]

2. Lawrence O'Donnell is just wrong

I don't know why he is commenting on the media hype instead of the full facts that I have to think he's got to know.

Murtha has been picked apart like a Thanksgiving turkey around here, and all we've got is a way old scandal and his use of the budgeting process which literally everybody does.

What we don't have is the same scrutiny of Steny Hoyer. Why? Everybody has got to stop and ask themselves - why. Steny Hoyer is known to be big on lobbyists, he just got an endorsement from the DLC, he's an old school crony pol. That's the kind of corruption America just voted out. Why would Nancy Pelosi want to have to deal with that in the Majority Leader? That's what brought Tom Delay down.

Alcee Hastings over Jane Harmon. Excuse me, but Jane Harmon is the one who had access to Iraq intelligence and didn't warn anybody to all that was going on. Senator Rockefeller hand wrote a letter about the NSA wiretapping. I don't recall Jane Harmon doing squat about it. In fact, from what I can gather, she supports it. Obviously this is not who Nancy Pelosi wants on oversight of the friggin' CIA. We should all be supporting her in this, and not allow ourselves to get sucked into yet another decades old scandal being trumped up by who knows who - see the DLC.

I usually like Lawrence O'Donnell, but he's just wrong this time. We won't win if we put the same Democrats in charge who were the equivalent of the ink to the Republicans rubber stamp.

[Demeter]

3. Another Murtha Supporter

OpEdNews.com

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_thepen_061114_make_john_murtha_maj.htm


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November 14, 2006

Make John Murtha Majority LEADER

By thepen

TELL OUR DEMOCRATS THAT JOHN MURTHA DESERVES TO BE HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER

ELECT MURTHA LEADER: http://www.peaceteam.net/leader_murtha.php

There are two candidates in the running for House Majority Leader this Thursday, and they are both fine men. However, by his strong stand on reploying our troops out of Iraq, and by doing so at a time when many others were just going along with the Bush administration's stay the atrocities policy, John Murtha has earned the right to be selected for this position. Simply put, John Murtha deserves to be leader because of his LEADERSHIP.

John Murtha has stood up for us with courage on this issue. That's all we care about. Now it's time for us to stand up for him.

If you have a Democratic member of the House of Representatives in your district, please submit this form to send them an instant message by email. Please also call toll-free at 800-828-0498 or 800-459-1887 or 800-614-2803 and ask for your house member by name.


ELECT MURTHA LEADER: http://www.peaceteam.net/leader_murtha.php



Authors Website: http://www.peaceteam.net