The Moose Endorses Hoyer.

[BurtWorm]

This is the Moose from the DLC who used to work for the Christian Coalition, and who has made his entire career as a "Democrat" chastising progressives, bloggers and Dean supporters. Makes you want to rush right out and support Murtha.

If it's between the two, I'd rather have Murtha, but why can't there be a stronger (less tarnished) candidate for the second most important position in the House?

http://bullmooseblogger.blogspot.com/2006/11/hoyer-for-leader.html

Hoyer for Leader*

The Moose endorses Steny.

The Moose has long admired Steny Hoyer. He represents the Truman/JFK/Scoop tradition in the party of a strong national defense and progressive social policy. He is an effective spokesman for the vital center that his party is attempting to seize.

Steny Hoyer should become the donkey's House Majority Leader. He is being challenged by John Murtha who has become the darling of the anti-war left in the House and nationally. While Murtha is a patriot, he now represents the old guard of ideological polarazation. A Murtha victory would be viewed by the media as a triumph for the left. It would be welcomed by the right which is desperately looking for some good news.

This should also concern the Democrats - today's Washington Post,

"Hoyer also has the strong support of many of the party's conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats, who worry about Murtha's involvement in the Abscam bribery sting in 1980 and what they see as his freewheeling style on the House Appropriations Committee, where he has openly advocated for the interests of his district and his political supporters."

Most importantly, Steny has earned the position of Majority Leader. As an opposition leader, Steny was a reasoned, articulate, media savvy voice for the Democratic caucus and played a major role in last Tuesday's triumph.....

[Torgo Johnson]

1. All the more reason to support Murtha

Would someone please tell Marshall Whitman to stop constantly referring to himself as The Moose in the third person? Most normal people use pronouns such as I when referring to themselves. Of course more normal people aren't egomaniacs like Marshall Whitman.

[chaumont58]

2. Nancy Pelosi doesn't like the sob

And it goes back aways. Tough nookie for Steny. Payback is a bitch.

[madfloridian]

3. The same Moose who said this stuff?

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/616

:mad:

[kiahzero]

4. David Corn's analysis is weakening my support for Murtha

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?bid=3&pid=140129

This morning, I called Melanie Sloan, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog group, to ask about the potential congressional reforms House Speaker-To-Be Nancy Pelosi is expected to push on Day One. But before we got to that, Sloan teed off on Pelosi for having endorsed Representative Jack Murtha, the hawk turned Iraq war critic, in his fight against Representative Steny Hoyer to be the House Democratic majority leader, the powerful number-two job in the body. "Murtha has lots of ethics issues," Sloan exclaimed. "What the hell is she thinking? Corruption turns out to be a major issue in the campaign, and you endorse the guy with the more ethics problems?"

Sloan was referring to exit polls that noted that 42 percent of voters considered corruption and congressional scandals critical to their voting decisions. And she pointed to her outfit's Beyond DeLay site that lists the "20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress." Murtha was not on that roster, but he garnered one of five "Dishonorable Mentions" (along with Republican Representatives Dennis Hastert, the outgoing speaker, J.D. Hayworth, who was defeated in Arizona last week, and Don Sherwood, who was accused by his mistress of choking her and who also lost his bid for reelection).

CREW's low-down on Murtha charges that he abused his position as the senior member of the defense appropriations subcommittee to steer contracts to military firms represented by his brother, a registered lobbyist. The report also notes that Murtha routinely inserted funding earmarks into defense spending bills for contractors that funded his campaigns and hired a lobbying firm run by a former aide on the defense appropriations subcommittee.

Murtha, according to Sloan, was also instrumental in undermining the House ethics committee. In the late 1990s, he successfully pushed (with other legislators) to change the committee's rules to prevent it from accepting ethics complaints from parties outside Congress. He also pressed Democratic leaders to name Representative Alan Mollohan of West Virginia the senior Democrat of the ethics committee. Mollohan has had his own ethics troubles--which have forced him off the ethics committee--and is a member of CREW's Top (or Bottom) 20. (See here.) "Murtha really doesn't like the ethics committee," says Sloan, speculating this may be due to Murtha's involvement in the Abscam bribery scandal of the late 1970s and early 1980s. (The ethics committee chose not to file charges against Murtha, after which the panel's special counsel resigned in protest.) "Murtha seems like a bad choice from our perspective," Sloan said.