Does anybody else not want Hoyer or Murtha for Majority Leader?

[Hippo_Tron]

I'm not really fond of either of elevating either of these guys to that position.

Hoyer has a good legislative profile and experience in the leadership. But make no mistake about it, he wants the job so that he can be in a position to challenge Pelosi for the Speakership at the first sign of trouble. I like Pelosi and want her to remain in her job and while I'm okay with Hoyer in the leadership I don't want him as our caucus' face, especially given his ties to K Street.

Murtha is socially conservative. I honestly don't see how he effectively rallies our votes when we have things like abortion, flag burning, gay marriage, etc. I realize that a lot of these things won't be voted on because we won't let them on the floor but some of them will and I don't understand how Murtha can rally votes and represent our caucus' positions in the media when he doesn't agree with them. Additionally, Murtha has no experience in the leadership ranks.

[bigtree]

1. If he can lead our troops out of Iraq, the rest will be worth it

[More Than A Feeling]

2. I'm not interested in Hoyer for the things you mentioned.

I've withdrawn my intial support for Murtha pending his cleaning up of the CREW allegations.

Who is another Blue Dog ally of Pelosi that won't undercut her and has no corruption allegations against him or her?

[movonne]

3. Murtha will try harder to get out of Iraq..

[Hippo_Tron]

5. Doesn't mean he's in a position to do this as Majority Leader

I'd love to see him chair Foreign Affairs or Armed Services, but I think that Pelosi will ultimately define our position on Iraq.

[LSparkle]

8. A Committee chairmanship may be what he's after at the end of the day

He only got into the leadership race recently and maybe he's hoping that he'll get something as a consolation prize. It's traditional for everyone to move up when control changes -- in a way, Murtha is sort of "cutting in line" by wanting to challenge Hoyer ... but I wasn't aware of his ties (Hoyer's) to K Street, so that's a bit of a downer. I'm just thankful for Speaker Pelosi and I hope she gets the team that will help HER be most effective.

[rusty charly]

4. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington:

Not only is Rep. Murtha beset by ethics issues, The New York Times reported on Oct. 2 that he has consistently opposed ethics and earmark reform. Sloan continued, "Rep. Murtha's opposition to ethics reform does not bode well for future Speaker Pelosi's promise to enact ethics legislation in the first 100 hours of the new Congress."

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=76225

[skipos]

7. I posted links to videos of the abscam stuff here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2712625&mesg_id=2712625

I have no doubts that repubs will bring this up if he is majority leader, so I hope everyone considers it.

[Ignacio Upton]

6. You're part of a growing number of people argueing this

Sadly I don't think it will make a difference >:(

[flordehinojos]

9. because i believe in her truth telling and her truth to power no matter what,

i would have liked to have seen MAXINE WATERS as House Majority Leader!

I think many politicians could learn a great deal from her.