Jeez, somebody needs to get used to being on the winning team.  Hoyer and Murtha will battle to be MAJORITY Leader.

Who is your dream Majority Leader? Anyone?

And yet more good news-   Darcy Burner up by 1000 in her House race...!

http://www.metrokc.gov/elections/200611/ resPage4.htm

I don't know much about Shadegg, but I have a little to offer about Mike Pence.

Pence is a (conservative) statewide-syndicated radio talk-show host-turned-Member of Congress.  He represents IN-06, a monstrosity of a district that runs from the southern suburbs of Indianapolis along the eastern edge of the state up to the southern edge of Fort Wayne.  

As a politician, he does his darndest to channel Ronald Reagan and comes damned close.  I suppose it stands to reason, as Pence is an entertainer like Reagan.  But Pence also gets the communications side of the house and is a fantastic communicator who inherently understands the theater of politics.  Some might even call him slick.  To get a better sense of this approach, look at his ads.  They're sickeningly saccharin...but, boy, do they play back home.  God, America, apple pie.  

In addition to manning the ramparts for the fundamental elements of the conservative revolution, Pence brought a level of media savvy to the GOP caucus that others initially marvelled at.  I recall that immediately after taking office in 2001, Pence set up a virtual radio studio in his House office so he could make regular appearances on local radio back home.  

As a provider of constituent services, I think he's done a little with Mark Souder to help the Fort Wayne airport.  I don't know much about his work to the south.  But he's largely unspectacular.  

Pence also has been included in the crowd of conservatives that have been critical of Bush for abandoning his conservative principles.  So he's positioned himself well with the social conservative base.  I bet Limbaugh loves him.

In my estimation, Boehner is well-suited to working in the majority.  He has K Street down cold and can move legislation for his buddies with ease.  Pence, on the other hand, will function best in leading the minority.  To have no power except the ability to articulate message in opposition to the majority in the well of the House...if I was the R's, I'd want this guy.

That all being said, I fervently believe he lives in a fantasy world of Norman Rockwell crossed with Jerry Bruckheimer.

This raises the question: Is Harry Reid's ascension to Majority Leader fait accompli? Or is someone like Hillary inclined to seek that position? That's Markos' theory, right, that Hillary will opt out of running for prez in favor of becoming majority leader?

Off Topic But is Drudge going to keep his promise to quit since we won both chambers?  

What a great night... We took both houses... got a measure of revenge for Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004... Took out a few potential GOP Pres Candidates.. took out the #3 senator for the GOP... Took out several long term incumbents... And the best kicker... Took over Tom Delay's seat.

Christmas came early this year!

I saw a nice little piece on Nancy Pelosi tonight- I think she will do really well as speaker.

Perhaps I am missing something here. Why is it ALWAYS spoken of as an either or choice - Hoyer or Murtha?

Hoyer has been dismal as Whip - ie. Bankruptcy bill, Torture Bill, elimination of Posse Comitatus in Pentagon "extra" spending bills, Domestic Spying and others. Hoyer is also classic DLC married to his corportist buddies.

Murtha has his heart in the right place on Veterans - but he has a serious pork problem. Also Murtha has old baggage of ABSCAM Scandal.

Either of these is a LIABILITY to our promise of clean government and keeping K Street at arms length. To me it is naive to have someone that can be a target for the Republicans as their own corruption catches up to them.

Is there a reason we cannot push for someone ethically clean - not corporately owned - and actually competent and efficient?

For Majority leader I personally would like Barney Frank. He is nationally known, a straight shooter, and from many experiences has one of the best and most efficently run offices that delivers actual results.

Again why cannot the netroots have a campaign to have a voice in choosing the leadership? What is there stopping us?

Murtha is a good fit for his district. He's socially traditional, but I wouldn't say he's a true economic populist. Much like Curt Weldon, Murtha's schtick is defense. I don't think very many things military come down the pike that Murtha wouldn't support. He's one of the great house members at getting federal dollars, or "pork", into his district, which is an economically depressed one, and the voters love him for that. They also like his brusque style which come from his USMC days and also from his age. That's appealing, but it's not everything.

It's true Murtha's speaking out about the mess in Iraq was a big turning point for Dems and that has made him a hero to many people here. But apart from that, his views are pretty much to the right of everyone who posts and reads this site. Activists Dems will not like the overall package
they would get with Murtha. There will be absolutely no questioning of overall defense spending and only minimal of defense policy - a debate this country desperately needs to have when we give around 500B a year to DoD. If you are looking for a Majority Leader to move the country on a progressive path, Jack Murtha ain't it.

Hey, how confident are we that Webb has won?  It seems like a lot of other news orgs, aside from NBC and the AP, have been hesitant to call the Virginia Senate contest for Webb.  Can anyone explain?

aren't good choices. Let us look elsewhere in the party for leadership. Let's see if the netroots can come up with someone better then these two, off the top of my head I like Rosa Delauro from CT, smart as a whip and has been in the House since 91, my dream for majority leader is my rep John Olver, a liberals liberal if there ever was one, he was arrested this past April for protesting the Darfur atrocity.

I also wouldn't mind seeing Charlie Rangel get a chance. I just don't think Murtha or Hoyer bring anything to the table, both have serious drawbacks, Hoyer is too in love with the K Street corpo crowd and Murtha loves his pork, we can do better then these two.

Or someone else, or god forbid, two of them. That's the best argument for Harry Reid, who has track record when it comes to flipping them the other way.

The executive branch still hase a lot to offer above the table, and Rove isn't above cheating with tax audits and bribes.

How can anyone even compare the two?  Murtha or Hoyer.  Murtha the ABSCAM, pork barreller, or Hoyer the Whip who along with Pelosi and Rham managed to give us Democrats the joy of finally seeing the House come back to the people.  How can Murtha even begin to make a case that he deserves to lead?  I mean after all he did ask for a troop pull out in Iraq.  Even though for the majority of his carreer he has bucked the Party.  If you read the NY Times article on Murtha from last month, even then he admits to delivering important bills to the REPUBLICANS in order to keep his pet projects and maintain his ever growing pork farm.  He has consistently voted against his party on the Federal Marraige Ammendment, and has an awful rating by NARAL, I believe that it is a 0. Prior to making his bid he had done little if anything to help emerging candidates, raise money etc, and he hardly voted with the democrats on many key issues. I contend that we have our first DINO (Democrat In Name Only) who is trying to break in to the power system.  Wereas Hoyer has worked not only with the Democratic Caucus, but with Pelosi for the past 12 years to bring us to were we are today. He is pro choice, suppourts civil rights for ALL people including the Gay and Lesbian Community.  Hoyer is a Democrat through and through.   It will be a sad day when the Democrats who after 12 years of seeing Abortion rights limited, Gay Rights Stomped and Democrats voices shut off, elect Murtha as leader a Man who has no problem TOWING the REPUBLICAN LINE.  Oh but he does have one thing in Common with the Dems, he wants the troops out of Iraq.  But Honestly, aside from that ONE THING what can he possibly do for the Party that he has consistently dissagreed with throughout his career?   Murtha is truly a One Trick Pony.

I particularly recall, in 1994, an ad his opponent ran with footage of him saying, "I am a tax-tax, spend-spend Democrat, and let my opponents make of that what they will."  They made of it what they could, and Steny went on to win another six terms.  Don't know how that district will fare when he retires, though.  St. Mary's county, in particular, seems slightly surreal for someone who grew up in the Baltimore-Washington corridor -- I sometimes suspected that bridge over the Patuxent was actually a dimensional wormhole to Alabama.  However, the last redistricting put more of the heavily black (and Democratic, natch) DC suburbs in Prince George's county into the district.

This hear Hoyer ran unnopposed except for a Green, who won a surprising 17%.  Not sure what that means, with no Republican in the race; perhaps there's a significant minority of "anybody but Steny" voters there.

In response to Alex, it seems to make more sense to elect for Majority Leader someone who had NO opposition in their election (Hoyer) than someone who had significant opposition (Murtha).  The last thing we need is a threatened Majority Leader.

Murtha is no good. I have a great deal of respect for the man for speaking out against the war but what the heck took him so long to do it? And then after he did, it seemed like he was holding a press conference every other day.

Other than the war, he falls more to the right than left. Oh, Allen is conceding now!