Pelosi squeezing out Hoyer?

Nancy Pelosi is currently the Speaker, and Steny Hoyer, her long-time rival, is the Democratic leader. With Pelosi out as Speaker and now running for the post of Democratic leader, Hoyer, to stay in the leadership, must take one step down and run for Democratic whip. But that post is currently held by James Clyburn, a hero to the Black Congressional Caucus. Patrick O’Connor at the Wall Street Journal calls it a “squeeze play.”

By the way, notice how the mainstream media are now constantly referring to Hoyer as a “moderate,” and how the Blue Dog Democrats are referred to as “conservatives.” It’s a lie. There are no conservative Democrats. Remember Bart Stupak?

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Meanwhile, the New York Times in its story on Pelosi today makes three cogent points:

• “She is also a determined political infighter, and both friends and critics said she was being motivated in part by a refusal to be driven from Congress by Republicans.” (As I suggested yesterday.)

• While some Speakers, like Dennis Hastert, have resigned after losing the majority, it is not unheard of for a Speaker to stay on as Minority Leader after losing control of the House. Sam Rayburn “twice lost the speakership when his party gave up the majority, serving as minority leader until the House was recaptured.”

• “Allies of Ms. Pelosi argued that if she were the only Democrat to lose her post in the election she would be accepting most of the blame for the defeat. They also argued that ousting her from the post would be was unfair since she had done much of the work of advancing an ambitious Democratic agenda that has also been embraced by President Obama and Mr. Reid.”

The last point is the most significant. Given that the party (with the exception of some of the Blue Dogs) stands as one in its support of Obamacare and the rest of the Obama agenda, Pelosi has simply been representing what the party as a whole has believed in all along and still believes in. So, from the Democrats’ point of view, what has she done wrong, and why should she step down?

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 06, 2010 08:04 AM | Send