Hoyer Defeats Murtha in Bid for House Majority Leader

From CNSNews.com:

In a 149-86 vote, House Democrats Thursday elected Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland as House majority leader, delivering a defeat to Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania and a snub to new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who had supported the losing candidate. Before introducing Hoyer at a press conference following the vote, Pelosi thanked Murtha for his "magnificent contributions" to the debate on Iraq. She said she supported his candidacy for House majority leader because she thought having him as the top Democrat in the House "would be the best way to bring an end to the war in Iraq." Pelosi then introduced Hoyer, who ran against her in the past, and congratulated him. "We've had our debates, we've had our differences," Pelosi said of Hoyer. "As we say in church: Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with us. Let the healing begin."

This is actually kind of disappointing. Murtha and Pelosi working as a team would have inspired the wrath of voters in much the same way the Republicans just did. It would have been interesting to see how they dealt with the problem of, "now what do we do?"

And Pelosi's faux piety is pretty disgusting. I imagine we'll have to get used to that in the same way we did video of the Clintons going to and coming from church.