Pelosi backs Murtha to be next Majority Leader
Sorry, Steny, the Dems are redeploying to Okinawa.
By Mark Kilmer Posted in Democrats — Comments (51) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Yeah, The Hill has the letter from Nancy Pelosi to Jack Murtha:
"Your strong voice for national security, the war on terror and Iraq provides genuine leadership for our party, and I count on you to continue to lead on these vital issues," Pelosi wrote Murtha Sunday in a letter obtained by The Hill. "For this and for all you have done for Democrats in the past and especially this last year, I am pleased to support your candidacy for majority leader for the 110th Congress."
With the next Speaker's support, odds are that 25-years after the Democrat-controlled House Ethics Committee cleared Murtha of all charges in the ABSCAM scandal, Okinawa Jack finally will get the leadership position to which he had been working before getting caught.
Murtha ran her effort to become Minority Leader, and his election by the caucus sends a very clear message to Republicans: "THIS IS OUR HOUSE, SUCKERS!"
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but this would be the demise of both Murtha and the Dems... Not that it would be a bad thing... (Actually, this scares me!) Formally known as deagle.
I was afraid that Pelosi and gang were going to moderate for the next two years to win again in '08. This to me means that they are committed leftist who will remind the American people why they voted for the GOP the last 12 years.
He opposes abortion, gun control, co-wrote the flag burning amendment, and managed to pass a few other bills for the GOP... the Dems really are suicidal... A lot of liberals supported Murtha for speaking out about Iraq but they don't seem to get that he might stab them in the back. Repeatedly.
He has sold his soul - such as it was - to the left and will do everything Nancy tells him to do.
_______________________________
If "pro" is the opposite of "con", what is the opposite of "progress"?
"Who will stand/On either hand/And guard this bridge with me?" (Macaulay)
Steny got knifed. Pelosi will rule wiht an iron fist. Moderates move to the corner of the room.
08' is looking better already.
I won't hold my breath, Pelosi comes across as a dragon lady if you cross her.
Of course what this means is that Pelosi may be knifing some of those newly electeds in the back if she makes them toe the party line-they didn't run on an uber leftie plank.
"Murtha is a Democrat with a relatively populist economic outlook, and is generally much more socially conservative than most other House Democrats. He opposes abortion, consistently receiving a 0% rating from NARAL...
Unlike other Democrats, he generally opposes gun control, earning an A from the National Rifle Association. He supports conscription and is generally more hawkish than other Democrats currently holding office.'
He's an anti-abortion, pro-gun, hawk.
Murtha's district, PA-12, is not ultra-liberal, and neither has been Murtha. The Dems got him to speak out against the war precisely because of his veteran and defense bonafides.
That's his record. His lengthy record going back several years.
He's since gone nuts, and he represents the lunatic fringe on the war. It could be that he was promised a leadership position should his snipes help the Dems regain control of Congress. Did they? Well, there's a pretty good argument that they did.
The Jack Murtha we'll get as Majority Leader is not Jack Murtha the quiet backbencher from rural Pennsylvania: the anti-abortion, pro-gun, friend-to-the-military. We'll get the old man with one note, an off-key fringe tone.
He supports a timetable for phased withdrawal of most troops, taking the emphasis off what he sees as nation building. I disagree with his analysis. In fact, most folks around here would probably disagree, though maybe not all.
But a result, he's being called a 'liberal' - just doesn't make sense to me.
His views make him seem more like a Jim Webb figure so far as I can see. I think we should be planning on how to counter an Anti-War "Blue Dog", rather than sitting back and getting excited over this pro-life, pro-gun "liberal".
Plan for the opponent you have, not the opponent you'd like to have.
If you can forgive or either agree with his current position, then you're not any kind of conservative. Hey, let's just all pull out and "get along"...heh! Creeps...all of them...
Formally known as deagle.
I will call him a lunatic, and I have seen enough interviews of the man in the last year to solidify that opinion. He toned down his rhetoric, coached, as the election drew near, but when he had first found the spotlight, spittle was flying from his mouth as a attacked all and sundry.
Understand, Murtha's historical record has been one of a moderate. His average ADA, the lefty quotient, was about a 50 out of 100. In 2005, he soared in his leftiness to a 75 our of 100 (pdf).
As I said, the Jack Murtha of right now is not the Jack Murtha of old, the one you describe. He was a man who was on the rise in the House Democratic Caucus until he got caught in the ABSCAM investigation. He was not punished, but he fell silent, abandoning his leadership dreams. He lived his Congressional life as a powerful but silent backbencher.
I suspect the Dems provided him with the opportunity to become famous, a leader, and his old lusts returned. If my guess is correct, he's sold his soul.
I know exactly what Okinawa Jack Murtha is.
But the vibe on this comments thread is that this endorsement shows that the Dems are "freezing out" their "moderate wing". I'm suggesting Redstaters might like to think twice about that conclusion, in the interests of opposition awareness.
As for his ADA - I would presume it varies according to which specific bills etc come before the house. I wouldn't take one year in isolation.
If he gets the post, I'd recommend attacking on the issues of Pork and Iraq. But some comments on this board indicate people gearing up to attack on the issue of general liberalness. Just saying - that fish won't bite.
On his comments about the soldiers and marines themselves.
"The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal comfort... has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
--John Stuart Mill
He would follow the party line as majority leader. He's not going to be going out on his own on gun control or anything else. He will be as liberal as the day is long. He'll have to be.
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"I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more I have of it." -- Thomas Jefferson
"We've become the enemy." --US Rep. John Murtha
"We can't win this." --US Rep. John Murtha
"There was no firefight. There was no IED that killed these innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood" --US Rep. John Murtha (said before the military’s investigation was even complete, and a big crowd-pleaser at Aljazeera)
(In other words, Jack Murtha thinks our "inept emotionally fragile" military will snap at any minute, because they're not up to the task.)
I hope Murtha wins because it will signal that Democrats have learn nothing in 12 years of being in the minority. With the Libs running the committees, the Democrats are going to overreach and the Republicans will win the House and the Senate.
Good point on the over reach. I believe that the Dems have totally misread their victory. They are going to try to turn this into a Vietnam, with the same hearings, bashing of the military, and that's not what the voters want. Joe Biden already said that he is going to model hearings off the 1971 Vietnam hearings. It's a big, big mistake that is going to cause a massive backlash. At least it will if the republicans are smart enough. They should be going to court, fighting in committee, and arguing through the media to try to stop these democratic hearings from hurting the military, and our military effort. They could hold their own voluntary hearings on the side. Could also encourage witnesses to take the fifth amendment, perhaps the way the Democrats did during Whitewater. The Republicans can't just stand by watching, and letting the Democrats get away with it. They can disrupt these hearings, and find ways to show they are illegitimate, maybe by getting a federal judge to rule they are hurting the war effort, or are partisan.
when he first came out in favor of "redeployment." When he suddenly decided to embrace Code Pink, those fine folks who protest outside Walter Reed on a regular basis, he forfeited any respect I had for him. He sold his soul to become the darling of the fringe. I can only hope Senator-Elect Webb will not follow in his footsteps.
Falsely accuse the troops of atrocities, say we can't win, advocate precipitous withdrawal, been there, done that. About the only difference is that Murtha isn't known to be negotiating with Al Qaeda, as Kerry did with the Viet Cong. But then, you never know...
Time for the GOP to start talking to those freshman House members about changing their vote for Majority Leader. If there are enough Dem dissenters, maybe Boehner might win! I'll bet a lot of those freshman Dems who won by very slim margins must be squirming right now...
Also, time for GOP Senators to start serious discussions with Joe Lieberman and Jim Webb--Murtha might have the Senate majority against him!
The bad news: Conservatism is hard to sell. The good news is that it works.
We just spent months attacking Sen. Elect Webb. Why would he join us?
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If you're seeing shades of gray, it's because you're not looking close enough to see the black and white dots.
He'll need at least three years in order to reach the level of cynical political calculation involved... what, he was already in government service?
Well, heck, then. Spin out the line and see if he nibbles. :)
Moe
PS: Seriously, I don't think that he'd join us, either. But it wouldn't hurt to make sure the Democrats understand precisely what kind of pig in a poke that they've bought here.
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC.
"I have known and respected Jack Murtha for nearly thirty years," said Webb. "He is a true patriot, whose service and judgment was wrongly criticized by this Administration as soon as he began speaking the truth about Iraq. It will be a pleasure to join Congressman Murtha on Capitol Hill so that we can begin to re-shape America's national security agenda."
In addition you could look up his editorial called 'Purple Heartbreakers' with the NYT.
Webb seems pretty solidly in the pro-murtha camp even before he was running for office.
"The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal comfort... has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
--John Stuart Mill
It's unlikely he'll go for it. But, if Code Pink Murtha becomes the face of the Democratic Party, how well do you think that will sit with Webb?
Let the YouTube commercials about Murtha, replete with his many recent statements about our troops, begin.
Bush now has another foil to combat: Majority Leader Murtha, to couple with Speaker Pelosi.
We can beat these people mercilessly with their own words for the next two years. We've built a blog network that is already well-trained and well-suited for the task.
Blue Dogs, do something about this. Silence on your part equals consent to the image of a Majority Leader Murtha, along with the message it sends to our troops.
"Who will stand/On either hand/And guard this bridge with me?" (Macaulay)
Joe Biden, democratic chairman-to-be, has already said he will model his hearings off the 1971 hearings. That is the democrats' dream, to live vietnam over again. They think the hearings will play out the same way, with the same reaction, and the same massive democratic victory.
The republicans need to do everything possible to make sure that instead there is a backlash, one which wipes the democrats out of the congress.
While the Democrats are busy worrying about the minimum wage, Chinese subs are stalking our aircraft carriers (Via. Drudge).
Are the Democrats sure they want to be in control right now?
right now is that the Iranians have diesel subs using the same Soviet technology as the Chinese subs. The Chinese appear to be rational in their use of military power, nothing indicates that the Iranians are.
In Vino Veritas
They could certainly use them to attack merchant shipping, but they would be disposable. Use them to attack between zero and two ships and they'll lose them along with their crew. They'll get about as much out of their Navy as they would out of their Air Force if they tried to use either.
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"I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more I have of it." -- Thomas Jefferson
This just tells me they couldn't find anyone better...
I unfortunatley don't know if Bush is up to the task. If this truns out to be true and the Dems actually press for the "redeployment" retreat from Iraq, Bush must stand up and fight hard to stop this from happening AT ALL COST. I am suprised I really didn't think the Dem leadership would actually do it. It is political suicide becuase unless you are a idiot who thinks the US is the real evil in the world losing Iraq is obviously leaving the gates of hell wide open and unmanned pouring demons into the rest of the world.
Bush must drop the Mr. Nice guy stuff and fight. Bush is a leader he has sent thousands to fight a War he owes them and all of US that. No more hiding no more not rallying the people no more non-confrontational speeches with the Dems. Bush must get out thier and straight let it be known he will not allow it under any circumstances PERIOD. If nessecary he must block maneuver rally the people hell QUESTION their Patriotism and if it comes down to it enact the Espionage/Sedition Acts. The Republican minority must do whatever fillbuster, delay, recess, hell anything.
We cannot allow another American defeat. WHATEVER THE COST!!
against the Commander in Chief and his Field Generals is all but assured should Murtha capture the Majority Leader's position. Pelosi's endorsement of Murtha vastly increases the probability of that scenario.
The ensuing battle over the separation of powers between the Executive and the Legislative branches, given the inherent authority granted to the Executive during a time of war, is likely to become a constitutional crisis of unprecedented proportion.
We are, IMHO, about to learn exactly where Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito stand regarding the inherent constitutional authority of the Unitary Executive and the limit of said powers.
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"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so." - Ronald Reagan
Well, probably so... I can only hope that America will rise up and punish these idiots.
Formally known as deagle.
...who doesn't personally refer to the man as an 'ex-Marine'. I'm given to understand that this would be a killing insult under the old Code Duello.
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC.
But my ex-Marine son has other words for him...no further explanation necessary...(Hey, we all can't be Marines)... Hoooya!
Formally known as deagle.
Them's our Dems!
(Their fight against corruption lasted longer than expected.)
You have to see to this believe it. (HT: LGF)
Even worse than all those anti-Republican episodes last week. I thought it was interesting that every show in their animated block had an anti-Republican theme to it, conveniently right before election day.
The writing for that show seriously went down hill a few years ago and it has never come back. I'm sure hope they hired a different group of writers for the movie.
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"I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more I have of it." -- Thomas Jefferson
And most of the new Democrats who took Republican seats ran AGAINST cut 'n' run or timetables in their races.
This could just be a futile gesture Pelosi throws toward the moonbat left.
Of course, she could also give Murtha the chairmanship of Appropriations, which might be even worse . . .
Who, on election night, opined so haughtily that now President Bush would have to talk to the Dems about what to do in Iraq.
Ms. Powers, with (tempered) respect, THIS is why President Bush hesitated (to the extent he did) to talk to the Dems about Iraq. Because, with people like Murtha shaping Dem Congrssional opinion on the war, he knew what they'd say.
There is weak. And there is Murtha Weak.
And, if Murtha, after all he had said, becomes the chosen leader of the Democratic Congress, may we assume that Murtha Weak now equals Democrat Weak? I'd say so. That is, Ms. Powers, IF your party chooses him to lead.
Ball's in your court, ma'am. The whole world's watching. Especially the soldiers in mess halls in Iraq and Afghanistan. You know--the ones who booed when they heard Rahm Emmanuel talk about the "failure in Iraq."
My oh my. What will you do if you become known as the apologist for Pelosi and Murtha. That's one heck of an item for your resume.
"Who will stand/On either hand/And guard this bridge with me?" (Macaulay)
Good news for conservatives, I mean? Hoyer is a lot more liberal.
Murtha, he's Pro-gun rights, Pro-life, he's helped passed legislation for the Republicans in the past.
Murtha will dance to the tune Pelosi and the bulk of the Democrats play, not to mention the media. Forget what he was, what matters is what he will be. He, kindly old man that he is, will be the soft spoken guest handling puff questions on the talk shows, on the floor of the house he will manage the mechanics, with suitable guidance from the sharks in the waters.
Pelosi wants a figurehead, she will hardly allow someone of occasional moderate views to mitigate her own or give her grief. And they both have to deal with Reid, Kennedy, et al.
"a man's admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him". Tocqueville
I suspect this is more a case of hardball politics.
Remember that Hoyer ran against Pelosi for minority leader. More recently, Hoyer handpicked Cardin to run against Mfume for the MD dem senate seat, to the great displeasure of the CBC. They can't stand Hoyer because of that, and the CBC is perhaps Pelosi's most solid support block in the Dem caucus. This is the first chit come due..
at least we now know the Dems are as suicidal as we suspected.