Thus ends the really bizzare start to Pelosi's SOH career

Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) defeated Pelosi's pick for Majority Leader, John Murtha (D-Pennsylvania), and it wasn't that close 148-86. I guess you might call that a "thumping."

All-in-all a bad start. Someone adept at the inside game would know that support for Murtha was weak, at best, and avoided the fight. I appreciate Pelosi's loyalty, but Murtha's Iraq views are out of touch with all but the farthest left of the Democratic Party. The "Immediate Withdrawal" crowd will put most of the Dem agenda and the prospects for building on November's momentum at risk. While Murtha was praised for his willingness to speak up on Iraq, I always assumed his role was to speak out for the extreme position, grab some press, and leave the moderates to take the "realistic" approach and grab the middle ranks of US voters. I also figured Pelosi just overplayed her hand in backing a man who apparently was sure to lose. But injecting before Hoyer spoke that,

she wanted to "acknowledge the magnificent contribution of Mr. Murtha to this debate on the war in Iraq."

Even the most jr. player knows that you don't try to steal the spotlight from someones victory speech. So not only did she step on Hoyer's moment, she highlighted the most extreme aspect of the Democratic party, and the thing that voters fear about the Dems. I still feel that the voters wanted some kind of undefined change for victory in voting for the Dems, and did not give the them a mandate for immediate withdrawal.

Plus, Murtha was very outspoken about Pelosi's new "Ethics" campaign, semi-famously calling it "crap." While he later said he didn't mean what he said, it was an odd way to return the favor of loyalty. All of which only highlights his own ethics issues, notably Abscam and more recently getting the always popular "plus five to watch" mention by Beyond Delay, a group that puts out a list of the 20 most corrupt politicians in Congress.

Odd, just odd. Again, I appreciate loyalty, but surely there was another way to reward Murtha without immediately risking losing an election (especially when she should have known she didn't have the votes), immediately showing weakness to a GOP frothing at the mouth to reclaim power, and immediately looking hypocritical on the goal of cleaning up the House. Reading her goals for the first 100 hours, I didn't see any of the above.

None of this even gets into Pelosi's choice to have an impeached judge (Alcee Hastings, D-FL) take over the House Intelligence Committee over an apparently qualified woman (Jane Harman D-CA), who may have made the mistake of rubbing Pelosi the wrong way. Another blow to "Draining the Swamp." Loyalty over ethics, where have we seen this story?

[Added: 11/17. Here's some background on the conflict between Pelosi and Harman-None of it makes Pelosi look good, or inspires me to expect anything great from her.]

Just one week after getting tossed from power, things are looking up for the GOP.