Pelosi's Murthaless Week

...Every one of us has a story about Steny," Rep...

...After the speeches, members voted by secret ballot...

...If Pelosi behaves as expected, it will be the second time the speaker-designate has sided with an ethically challenged individual because of his antagonistic stance toward Bush and his foreign policy...

...Murtha's advocates, including speaker-designate Pelosi, emphasized the war in Iraq and the need to present a unified policy of withdrawal...

...Just how vigorously Pelosi campaigned for Murtha is unclear...

...Which is true—for now...

...He remains an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1980 ABSCAM bribery scandal and an outspoken critic of lobbying reform...

...Both Murtha and Hoyer voted to authorize the use of force against Saddam Hussein...

...Hoyer won, 149 to 86...

...There will be 44 Blue Dog Democrats in the next Congress, the most since the coalition of moderates was founded in 1995...

...In the other corner was Jack Murtha of Pennsylvania, the most vocal advocate of "redeployment" from Iraq and the face of the antiwar Democrats...

...It exposed the left's belief that leaving Iraq is the litmus-test issue...

...The speaker-designate won the respect of many of her colleagues during the fight over Bush's Medicare prescription drug entitlement, when her ability to round up Democratic votes almost derailed passage of the legislation, and during the fight over Bush's proposal to reform Social Security, when she successfully prevented all House Democrats but one from working with Republicans...

...If Pelosi intends to make Iraq the focus of the next Congress, as would seem to be the case, she will have to find ways to harness the support of more centrist members...

...Murtha's overwhelming defeat may be a sign that the unified Democratic caucus on which Pelosi built her reputation could quickly become a thing of the past...

...Last week, a few days before the leadership election, a FBI videotape on which Murtha can be seen discussing potential business deals with an undercover federal agent was widely circulated on the Internet...

...These range from Dave Loebsack of Iowa, who advocates "complete disengagement" within the year, to Heath Shuler of North Carolina, who on his website pointedly disagrees with Murtha and is one of only two freshman Democrats to use the word "win" with regard to Iraq (the other is Tim Mahoney of Florida...

...As in the leadership election, when her handpicked majority leader lost by a significant margin, Pelosi may face a revolt and be unable to appoint Hastings...

...While her sympathies with Murtha were no secret, days before the leadership Matthew Continetti is associate editor at The Weekly Standard...

...It was a setback for which Pelosi had only herself to blame...

...All three decisions were unanimous...

...The House Democratic caucus's position on Iraq is still fluid...

...He even posted a letter of support from six "progressive members" of the caucus...

...In the 2006 election cycle alone Hoyer raised more than $8 million for House Democrats while campaigning in 80 congressional districts in 33 states...

...One Democrat told me Hoyer's victory was "an important statement by the caucus that they're not going to be driven by the antiwar left...

...Pelosi is expected to pass over Har-man for committee chair in the next Congress in favor of Alcee Hastings of Florida, the disgraced judge who was impeached by Congress for his role in a bribery scandal but then won election to the House of Representatives...

...Last fall, when Murtha announced it was time for the United States to leave Iraq, Hoyer was his most prominent Democratic critic...

...On this, the Democrats with whom I spoke last week all agreed: Murtha's was a one-issue candidacy...

...Pelosi clearly believes the midterm elections weren't simply a repudiation of Bush's current policies in Iraq, but rather a call to end the war as soon as possible...

...It wasn't even close...

...One of the members of Hoyer's cabinet was Jane Harman of California, the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee...

...She told the press she supported Murtha because she "thought that would be the best way to bring an end to the war in Iraq...

...According to some of those present, the atmosphere was civil but intense, and the meeting room was filled with anticipation...

...by Matthew Continetti When they met last week to elect their new leadership, House Democrats saved the most contentious decision for last...

...Pelosi will probably recover quickly from this setback, but the vote also exposed divisions between the speaker-designate and caucus that are unlikely to vanish anytime soon...

...He knows the name of every Democratic member and is always willing to meet and forge alliances...

...There will be 60 Democratic representatives from districts Bush won in 2004...

...In public remarks following the leadership elections, she said Murtha's announcement last November that America should leave Iraq "changed the debate" in Washington and around the country "in a way that I think gave us this majority...

...There was no good reason to jettison one member of the team...

...Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who supported Hoyer...

...Then it was time to elect the next majority leader, and the caucus came unglued...

...But Murtha has since repudiated that vote and said the war is lost, while Hoyer has not...

...The clear implication was that a vote for Murtha was a vote for rapid "redeployment...

...Pro-life and pro-gun, Murtha is to the right of most of his caucus on social issues and a legendary federal appropriator who never met an earmark he didn't like...

...It was not the most stirring endorsement from the left, and indeed the race for majority leader broke along ideological lines, on foreign policy in particular...

...Instead, on foreign policy, a new base of power in the caucus has emerged in the center...

...Hoyer's advocates, including Henry Waxman of California, incoming chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, emphasized the minority whip's interpersonal skills...

...Most of the freshmen are somewhere between these extremes—which means that, in any future fight, their votes will be up for grabs...

...Maxine Waters told MSNBC's Chris Matthews last week...

...He is a member's leader," Rep...

...And there will be 29 Democratic freshmen, each with his or her own position on Iraq...

...He would always go out of his way to make you feel at home, whether you were progressive or conservative...

...But events may defy expectations...

...Prior to the vote, supporters of each candidate addressed the crowd...

...Also last year, Hoyer formed a "kitchen cabinet" of moderate Democrats to articulate a Democratic national strategy that would appeal to diverse groups of Americans...

...The caucus quickly named Nancy Pelosi of California speaker-designate before electing Jim Cly-burn of South Carolina majority whip and Rahm Emanuel of Illinois caucus chairman...

...A major worry for Pelosi and her supporters is that those strengths may vanish once the Democrats are in the majority...

...There wasn't much else on which he could run...

...Hoyer is a classic political operator...

...Hoyer has his own ties to K Street lobbying firms, but is nowhere near as compromised as Murtha on ethics issues...

...Hoyer is a classic political operator who, through fundraising and interpersonal connections, has built strong constituencies among his colleagues...

...It's a team that unifies...

...election Pelosi made the controversial decision to circulate a letter of support for him and campaign on his behalf...

...People saw that the Pelosi-Hoyer leadership team had been effective," says Rep...

...On his website, in the run-up to the leadership election, Hoyer posted letters of support from House moderates, a majority of the incoming Democratic freshmen, and nine incoming committee chairmen...

...And, perhaps more important, it revealed that the antiwar, pro-redeployment Pelosi may be out of step with a Democratic majority not yet sold on abandoning Iraq...

...Says one former Democratic Hill aide, "In the House, it would be nice to say we have consensus around the Murtha approach, but you don't, you probably don't...

...Hastings is viewed as Steny Hoyer has his own ties to K Street lobbying firms, but is nowhere near as compromised as John Murtha on ethics issues...

...more partisan than Harman and more likely to ask tough questions of administration officials...

...In one corner was Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the current minority whip and the favorite in the race...

...Dan Boren of Oklahoma told me...

...More recently, reporters and nonprofit "good government" organizations have raised questions about the activities of Murtha's brother, a lobbyist whose clients have received millions of dollars in congressional appropriations...