House Republicans May Cross Party Lines To Elect A Democrat As Speaker of the House?

The catch is, they'd be voting for supposed moderate Steny Hoyer (he of "slavish devotion" fame) rather than Nancy Pelosi.

And for any of this to work, they'd need near-perfect party unity on the vote, Hoyer's cooperation or at least connivance, and fifteen Blue Dog Dems to vote with them.

In exchange, Hoyer would promise (as is likely his desire anyhow) to appoint Jane Harmon as Intelligence Committee leader rather than disgraced bribe-taking impeached judge Alcee Hastings.

Of course, none of this will happen. It's too big of a dream to get 15 Democrats voting with the Republicans, and further, may Republicans may calculate that Speaker Pelosi is their best weapon for retaking the House.

In more fun at Allah's link, Democrats are bringing up Abscam -- oh yeah, that -- as a reason to deny Murtha the Majority Leader post, and of course he's outraged.

They also might want to bring up Pelosi's real estate dealings, if they really are interested in having "the most ethical Congress in history."

posted by Ace at 04:35 PM

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