NYT editorial: Speaker Pelosi Tempts Disaster

[DeepModem Mom]

Editorial
Speaker Pelosi Tempts Disaster
Published: November 17, 2006

Nancy Pelosi has managed to severely scar her leadership even before taking up the gavel as the new speaker of the House. First, she played politics with the leadership of the House Intelligence Committee to settle an old score and a new debt. And then she put herself in a lose-lose position by trying to force a badly tarnished ally, Representative John Murtha, on the incoming Democratic Congress as majority leader. The party caucus put a decisive end to that gambit yesterday, giving the No. 2 job to Steny Hoyer, a longtime Pelosi rival....

***

Mr. Murtha would have been a farcical presence in a leadership promising the cleanest Congress in history. Ms. Pelosi should have been first to realize this, having made such a fiery campaign sword of her vows to end Capitol corruption. Instead, she acted like some old-time precinct boss and lost the first test before her peers.

As incoming speaker, Ms. Pelosi will be dogged by skepticism — from within the party and without — about her political smarts and her ability to deliver a galvanized agenda.

It was a no-brainer for the caucus to end the misguided fight for Mr. Murtha, who belittled the need for reform. Now the pressure is even greater for Speaker-elect Pelosi to recover by leading the House to something actually worth fighting for — starting with credible anticorruption strictures. For this she needs gaffe-wary advisers, among them Mr. Hoyer, who has his own questionable record of flourishing in big-money politics. The new majority — led by a presumably wiser speaker — must realize by now that intramural vendetta is hardly a substitute for productive government.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/17/opinion/17fri2.html

*

NOTE: Another NYT editorial from today, "Still Waiting for Bipartisanship"
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/17/opinion/17fri1.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fEditorials

"The voters sent a clear message last week that they do not want the far right of the Republican Party calling the shots in Washington. But President Bush has ignored the message, resubmitting a group of archconservative, underqualified judicial nominees that Senate Democrats have already said are unacceptable. With the Democrats about to take control of the Senate, it is highly unlikely that these men will be confirmed. But the renominations suggest that when it comes to filling judgeships, Mr. Bush is still not looking for either excellence or common ground...."

[babylonsister]

1. Severely scar? Gimme a break! More important, give Pelosi

a break! They sure are working overtime to try to ensure her failure. :eyes:

[roamer65]

2. I don't see any scarred leadership.

The NYT editorial page has turned into real RW fish wrap, from what I have heard. Maybe the problem is with their tainted view.

[DeepModem Mom]

4. I'm not defending the Pelosi editorial, but the other editorial today...

with a link below the first, specifically targets the right-wing, and Bush.

[cali]

8. That's laughable

The NYT editorial page is decidedly not right wing. And anyone who reads it, knows that.

[Rose Siding]

3. How odd that a remarkably similar situation didn't scar the gops

It's worth noting that the last time the House turned over, in 1994, Tom Delay beat Newt Gingrich's handpicked choice for majority leader and somehow the whole town didn't interpret that as Newtie's waterloo. As a matter of fact, the press was giving him such wet slurpy blowjobs they could hardly come up for air.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_digbysblog_archive.html#116373868117148083

Time named Newt "Man of the Year". AFTER his choice for leader failed.

[AndyTiedye]

6. The GOP Has TEFLON (TM)

[NightOwwl]

5. Oh for God's sake.

Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill.

[AndyTiedye]

7. Better Get Used to It. That's The Way The News Is Going to Look As Long as Dems Have ANY Power

[NightOwwl]

11. Maybe so...

but I seriously doubt Mr. and Mrs. Joe Blow are going to be talking about it at the dinner table tonight. The only people who are paying attention to this story are DUers and other political junkies.

[nealmhughes]

9. Look, it was a stragegic move on her part: hard ball politcs. Sort the sheep from the goats.

A power play, whatever. It was in the rarified air of the Dem. Caucus room and we have no idea of her motives except what she tells us. No more and no less.

[jsamuel]

10. only one thing to say to that

:eyes:

[windbreeze]

12. Like I said before

us winning Congress just put us in the line of fire...while the other guys get to quietly regroup...IF we didn't expect this...then we aren't facing reality...while the media bitches and complains about Pelosi, Murtha, Hoyer...et al, they are already putting us under the microscope and undermining what we will be able to accomplish.....HELL, this IS just the start...I hope we have our heavy armor on...we're going to need it...
windbreeze