Pelosi: "Strong arm tactics and threats" to get Murtha elected

[wyldwolf]

Despite Hoyer having the public support of most incoming committee chairmen, influential liberals such as Reps. Barney Frank (Mass.) and Maxine Waters (Calif.), most conservative Blue Dogs, and 21 of the 40 or so freshmen, Pelosi shocked even her own staff by openly giving her support to Murtha.

Pelosi's aggressive intervention on behalf of Murtha baffled and angered many Democrats, who said she unnecessarily put her reputation on the line out of misplaced loyalty to a friend and because of a long-standing feud with Hoyer, the minority whip. Pelosi pushed Murtha's candidacy at social events, in private meetings and with incoming freshman Democrats; they were called to her office to discuss committee assignments, only to hear first that she needed Murtha in order to be an effective leader.

Hoyer, 67, had been heavily favored to win the race until Sunday, when Pelosi -- in a move that shocked even her staff -- openly threw her support to Murtha, despite a vow to stay neutral. She said in a letter that she was swayed by Murtha's early call for a withdrawal of U.S. troops, and that he would be best positioned to lead a new Democratic majority.

So intense was the lobbying been that incoming House Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) -- after fielding a call from Pelosi -- said in a media report that he hadn't really endorsed Hoyer in a published interview in which he praised him.

One conservative Democrat said that a Murtha-Pelosi ally approached him on the House floor and said pointedly: "I hope you like your committee assignment, because it's the only one you're going to get."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111600514_pf.html

[wisteria]

1. Yeah? It's spin from the media done to help Hoyer. n/t

[wyldwolf]

4. Hoyer was elected BEFORE this came out.

[Horse with no Name]

2. You know what I love about Howard Dean?

The fact that he won't allow this "someone said" or "some people say" or "one Conservative Democrat said" or "many Democrats said" to go as fact.
This is pure bullshit.
Nobody is named as having said jack-shit.
Howard Dean has it right.
Refuse to acknowledge the bullshit spewed from RW rags as nothing more than rhetorical diarrhea.

[Target_For_Exterm]

3. The Republican spin cycle is still working, I see.

We can't forget that even after winning the election, everything gets sifted through the Republican filter to make Democrats look BAD. All those crooked Bush cronies are not going to easily give up their power, despite what the American people have to say about it.

[rodeodance]

5. its been slow so they are CREATING sensationalist 'news"