Click the link if you want to read comments; there's come good stuff. Clemons sparked an interesting discussion with this post.
Steny Hoyer will most likely be the next Democratic Party Leader in the House of Representatives despite Nancy Pelosi's support of John Murtha today.
But Pelosi's move is gutsy -- and diplomatic. She needs to build bridges between different factions in the House -- including traditional liberals like Hoyer and realist hawks against the Iraq War like Murtha. She's also got quite a few neo-con lite types among Dems that need to be handled.
By not favoring favorites and promoting competition, Pelosi is kick-starting the Democratic Party to start serioiusly debating how it defines itself and what message and objectives it wants to transmit to the public.
I'm impressed with the move -- even if the Murtha campaign fails. It's extremely smart to do. Even Hoyer seems to think so and accept what she has done.
http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/001766.phpNot sure I buy Steve's premise that Hoyer is a shoe-in. Hoyer and Murtha represent two different positions on the war, and Hoyer ran against Pelosi for Minority Leader back in '01. I sorta think Pelosi will do more than just send Murtha a nice letter voicing support. He helped her beat Hoyer, after all---why wouldn't she return the favor? Why wouldn't she want a close ally rather than somebody who opposed her?