Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi has made serious mistakes in supporting John Murtha for majority leader and Alcee Hastings for the chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee. The reasons are explained in detail by Ruth Marcus on the op ed page of today's Washington Post. Backing people who were stained by the Abscam scandal (in Murtha's case) and removed from a Federal court for bribery (in Hastings' case) seriously undermines Pelosi's claim to be an agent of change in the culture of corruption that unfortunately envelops the Congress. Although Ms. Pelosi has effectively distanced herself from the liberal orthodoxy that she was thought to embody, she has cast a cloud on her own reputation by opposing Steny Hoyer (D-MD) for House Majority Leader and Jane Harman (D-CA) as chairperson of the Intelligence Committee. It has been said in her defense that (a) she owed it to Murtha who managed her campaign against Hoyer for the Democratic leadership and (b) her letter was distributed after Hoyer already had the votes.
But there are other possible interpretations: (1) She holds it against Hoyer that he ran against her originally, (2) she is blind to the ethical implications (and the effect on her reputation as Speaker) of backing Murtha and Hastings, (3) she holds a personal grudge against Harman, who distinguished herself as ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, (4) she has weakened her position as Speaker by debuting in the Democratic Caucus as the backer of a losing candidate for Majority Leader.
Nancy Pelosi started off well but appears nowto be acting like a ward boss in the Baltimore political tradition of her father, Tommy D'Alessandro.
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