OT: I think I'm okay with Hoyer as Majority Leader

[beachmom]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2971918#2971924

As much as I like Murtha on the war, he was becoming the poster child for a "Democratic Culture of Corruption", and we needed to eliminate that, and I think we just did that. Pelosi is the Queen of the Castle, and she's on the same page as us on the war. Murtha would have been plagued with questions about his ethics and pork tendencies. Now he can concentrate on furthering the cause for our troops. I also know that most of the freshmen congressmen/women favored Hoyers, so that is quite telling in and of itself.

[whometense]

1. Good blog post here

for background info: http://www.mahablog.com/2006/11/14/murtha-v-hoyer/

[MH1]

2. Argh.

Personally, I don't think either should have been in line for a leadership position.

I respect and appreciate Murtha's stance on Iraq, but not much else of his positions, and the ethics stuff blows him out of the water for me.

OTOH, I knew Hoyer had failed abjectly on CAFTA. I didn't know the rest of the stuff. Now the situation seems truly awful.

Sigh.

[TayTay]

3. Doesn't anyone else here remember when Dems were in charge

of Congress? We have bad apples. We always have. That's why the netroots is so important. Now, someone is watching these guys, oh so closely.

[sandnsea]

7. Yes that's true

We were always going to have to watch and prod and make them make the changes. I think it just got a tad bit harder is all.

[MH1]

8. It seems to me that Steny Hoyer

needs some especially "loving" attention from the netroots.

Let the sun shine, baby....

[ProSense]

12. If Hoyer follows

Pelosi's lead on the war, then it's a plus. Also, they both support Net Neutrality.

Pelosi named first female speaker of US House

Cool!

[sandnsea]

6. Yep, it's truly awful

I find Hoyer's lobbyist garbage more sickening then Murtha sending money to local districts, but it all stinks. And Murtha was willing to look at making changes, whereas Hoyer has opposed lobbying reform outright. I think we just took a huge hit to changing Iraq, economic policy and clean govt, and that's what we were elected to do. I hope the Senate gets off to a better start.

[Firespirit]

10. Well,

A possible silver lining to such an outcome would be that the people would be even more fed up by 2008, and that could only help Kerry, who would run on all of the above. No one else could co-opt his agenda if their fingers are all dirty.

I am disgusted with the way things operate in Washington, DC. I'm becoming increasingly convinced that the only way to fix this mess is for JK to become president, KEEP the "unilateral powers" that Bush claims, and use them to clean up this stinking pile of shit. And that ALSO disgusts me that it could come to that.

[ProSense]

13. Exactly!

In a real debate about the two, it would have been about Murtha's earmarks vs. Hoyer's attachment to lobbyists.

Clean government!

[paulk]

15. "Mahablog"

anybody that uses David Sirota as some kind of reference point needs to take a journalism class or two.

[zann725]

4. On a gut-level, I really don't like or trust Hoyer. It's a REAL strong intuitive reaction

I get whenever he's on screen...like when Reagan, or Bush I or Chimpy spoke. There's something there that sets off all my 'alarms.'

I don't feel good about it at all. Particularly such a powerful position. But that's just me. Whatever...

[Firespirit]

5. Here we had no preference that I'm aware of

We were watching from the perspective of impartial observers. Hoyer seems to be a rather unassuming, possibly bland person in general, and the only thing about him that concerns me is the potential for Hillary connections.

I agree wholeheartedly though -- We the People are keeping a hawk's eye on them, no matter who they are.

[wisteria]

9. He was becoming the poster child because the media, the Republicans

and Hoyer painted him that way. I am disappointed because I think Hoyer will do all he can to undermine any significant effort to come to a consensus on the war in Iraq. He seems to be more about promoting the DLC position on this. Also, Hoyer isn't exactly clean. Now that he has the spot, the Republicans will start on him. So IMO, it would have made no difference corruption wise,but on the Iraq issue, we have lost a powerful voice on Iraq.
Trade off at best- we shall see. I am disappointed.

[SouthernBelle82]

11. I'm not

I'm very weary of him. Mostly because of this post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/hoyers-campaign-to-under_b_11848.html

[beachmom]

14. Everything you guys are saying is right.

However, Murtha and that ABSCAM thing was just awful, and easily explained in the media. I agree that somebody else would have been better, but I just think Murtha lost the media war, whereas Stoyer was a little less known.

Agree with everyone -- watch this guy like a hawk!!