Informed Speculation

The Hill reports on the damage the completely unnecessary Murtha fight did to Pelosi’s not-yet-begun leadership:

In a stunning rebuke to incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), House Democrats selected Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) to be their majority leader Thursday morning in a vote of 149 to 86 even though Pelosi had thrown her weight behind Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.).

Hoyer drew on a coalition of soon-to-be committee chairmen, centrists and freshman members to overcome Pelosi’s clout with colleagues. Pelosi lobbied both freshmen and returning members this week in an effort to oust her old rival from the leadership. Hoyer and Pelosi waged a bitter battle for minority whip in 2001.

Murtha, a noted Iraq war critic and senior appropriator, suffered from a perceived weakness on ethics. At a recent meeting of the conservative Blue Dog Coalition, he called the Democrats’ ethics package “total crap,” a comment that reverberated across the cable news networks only a day before the election.

With the election now settled, Democrats will turn to the hefty task of taking control of the House and pushing their agenda through Congress, but they will carry the baggage of this rancorous campaign. Pelosi’s entry into the race effectively drove a wedge into the caucus, weakened their ability to remain unified and infuriated Hoyer’s supporters, which include many in the moderate New Democrat Coalition and conservative Blue Dog Coalition.

That’s not the way Arianna Huffington sees it…in a hilariously off-key tribute to Pelosi, she sings the praises of the universally reviled effort to ram through Murtha (reviled by almost every reasonable person on both the right and left, I should point out):

…[D]on’t shed any tears for Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi. Even though her guy lost, this was still a big win for her. A victory for taking a stand — and for her leadership. Because that’s what real leaders do, they take stands. They listen to their hearts and follow their gut. If you only jump into the fights you’re sure you can win — notches in the W column that will look good on your political resume — you’re a hack, not someone who can move the party and the country forward. It’s not about trying to have a spotless record; it’s about knowing which battles are worth fighting, whatever the outcome.

It bodes well for Pelosi that was willing to spend her political capital right off the bat — especially on the issue that will define her time at the helm. Far too many modern politicians save their political capital until it’s lost all its value.

I don’t care what else you may have read today, the above two paragraphs are definitely the most clueless.  What kind of stand did Pelosi take? Pushing through a personal choice over a more-qualified one? An ethically challenged buddy, at that?

Combined with the upcoming effort to install the even-more-awful Alcee Hastings as Intelligence Committee Chair, we are seeing a tone-deafness that is rare even by Washington standards.  Less than two weeks ago, the voters resoundingly signaled they wanted a change.  Pelosi has given them more of the same.

Pathetic…