A Quick Trip Back To The Minority

When you're the political party not in power in Washington, you unite and focus your guns on the opposing political party. But when you're in power, your wounds tend to be more self-inflicted. The Democrats over time have proved to be especially adept at this. And the current crop wasted very few days before living up to the tradition.

House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) endorsed Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) yesterday as the next House majority leader, thereby stepping into a contentious intraparty fight between Murtha and her current deputy, Maryland's Steny H. Hoyer.

The unexpected move signaled the sizable value Pelosi gives to personal loyalty and personality preferences. Hoyer competed with her in 2001 for the post of House minority whip, while Murtha managed her winning campaign. Pelosi has also all but decided she will not name the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) to chair that panel next year, a decision pregnant with personal animus.

Pelosi had been outspoken about her frustration with Murtha's declaration that he would challenge Hoyer, currently the House minority whip, for the majority leader post long before Democrats had secured the majority. Many believed she would remain on the sidelines, just as Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) did earlier this year when three Republicans vied for the post of House majority leader.

But in her first real decision as the incoming speaker, Pelosi said she was swayed by Murtha's early stance for a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. Her letter of endorsement yesterday made clear that she sees Iraq as the central issue of the next Congress and that she believes a decorated Marine combat veteran at the helm of the House caucus would provide Democrats ammunition in their fight against congressional Republicans and President Bush on the issue.

Why Murtha? Why dump Harman from a position she's earned? It seems the speaker-to-be is allowing personal relationships to cloud her judgment. Murtha, a former Marine and two-time Purple Heart winner, favored intervention in Iraq before he opposed it and opposed withdrawal before he favored it. With the exception of Iraq, Murtha has very little in common politically with the lefty Democrats Pelosi has in her inner circle. He's pro-gun rights -- and he received an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association. He's pro-life, receiving a 0 percent rating from NARAL.

He is, you might say, generally to the right side of the Democratic Party. But Murtha has one teeny, tiny (OK, not so teeny and not so tiny) problem: ethics. Considering the role ethics -- or a lack thereof -- played in the defeat of the Republicans recently, one would assume the new speaker would be more careful about who she entrusts with power.

See Abscam, Murtha. ($50,000 in cash? "I'm not interested...at this point.") Or see Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, Most Corrupt Members Report. (One of only four Democrats highlighted by the left-wing group ... 21 Republicans made its list.) CREW says: "As reported in the study and by the news media, Rep, Murtha has been involved in a number of pay-to play schemes involving former staffers and his brother, Robert "Kit" Murtha."

The inside scoop also has Pelosi favoring Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings over Harman, a Blue Dog Democrat from California, has leader of the House Intelligence Committee.

Hastings, who BaT knew back in the day, is one of a kind. Actually, he's one of six of a kind. The sixth federal judge ever to be impeached by the U.S. Senate and removed from office. There's this little problem of accepting a $150,000 bribe for a lighter sentence and then lying about it once he was caught. He was later elected to Congress, where it fit right in with the other crooks and liars.

No one really excepts Nancy Pelosi to promote her political foes -- inside the party or out. But, with the voter temperment boiling over and another congressional election only a couple of years away -- one would think she's semi-intelligent enough to find quieter ways to reward her friends and punish her enemies.

P.S. On another note, this breaking news ... Rudy Giuliani is forming an exploratory committee that will allow him to raise money for a possible 2008 presidential bid.