Word: murtha
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...moment there it looked as if incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was making the mistake every pragmatic Democrat feared: putting soft-hearted personal allegiance ahead of cold-eyed political calculation. The first key decision she made since the Democrats' triumph in last week's elections was to back John Murtha, the anti-war hero of the left, in what seemed an impossible battle against Maryland moderate, Steny Hoyer, for the number two position in the House Democratic leadership, majority leader. And it wasn't looking good...
...Sensing the need for some spin control, Pelosi's aides spent the better part of the last few days trying to play down the significance of her support for Murtha. Other Democrats said she wasn't really backing him, just giving a token nod to an old friend and mentor who had helped her rise to her current lofty position...
...neither Hoyer nor Murtha has dropped out of this race, leaving a potentially divisive race for Democrats just as they are trying to get their footing. It's particularly complicated for Pelosi, who is in the midst of another contest that could irritate moderate Democrats, as she is planning to replace the current head of the House Intelligence Committee Jane Harman, a hawkish California congresswoman (Pelosi says the post has a term limit, but Harman insists the previous Democratic Leader, Richard Gephardt, had promised her she would get to continue as the top Democrat on the committee...
...Though the Pelosi-Hoyer tensions have largely stemmed from differences on policy - he's more of a centrist than she is - the Hoyer-Murtha matchup is much less simple. Murtha, despite his closeness to Pelosi, is a pro-life Democrat and actually more conservative than Hoyer, who is likely to get the votes of many liberal members who have backed Pelosi in the past. At a time when both parties are worried about pork-barrel spending, Murtha's longtime role on the House Appropriations Committee, where he secured members' votes with promises of getting special spending earmarks in their districts...
...Hoyer has already secured commitments from a majority of the newly elected House members. Of course, if the presumptive Speaker weighs in strongly with members and makes the case that she would be more effective with her friend Murtha at the leadership table, that could weigh heavily in Murtha's favor. It could also get Pelosi off to a rocky start at the pinnacle of her career, forcing her to contend with some unhappy House members on her own side of the aisle...