Murtha Loses Majority Leader Bid
By James Benton
Posted on Thu Nov 16, 2006 at 01:58:40 PM EST
Murtha goes back to his corner
As predicted, John Murtha is toast.
The House Democratic caucus today named Steny Hoyer, D-MD, house majority leader over the ethically challenged Pennsylvania Democrat in a 149-86 vote.
This vote will be considered a repudiation of incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, because she now must work with Hoyer, who sometimes has strayed from the party line. Pelosi and Hoyer have known each other for more than 40 years, but have been on the outs since competing in a nasty race for minority whip five years ago. Hoyer won that race.
This race may also deeply split the House Democratic caucus before it even takes power (between factions who supported Pelosi and Murtha or Hoyer) and damaging the party's chances to build its agenda over the next two years, if members remain angry at the tactics that apparently were used in the campaign for majority leader.
Murtha came under fire for several ethical missteps, including his role in the Abscam investigation 26 years ago (where he was investigated but not indicted), and for his horse-trading of earmarks for votes (his chair in the back of the House chamber is known as the "Murtha corner").
Furthermore, Pelosi's endorsement of Murtha for house majority leader was especially puzzling, since he has long been known to oppose ethics reform and that is one of her signature issues for the 110th Congress.
Let's hope this vote can lead to healing any intraparty wounds among the Democrats so the new leadership can make significant -- and bipartisan-- progress on the issues it says it intends to tackle. Especially ethics reform, as Murtha's previous conduct and recent behavior made evident.
Tags: John Murtha, Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer (all tags)
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