Wampum

My take on the House Majority Leader race and the impact of a loss by John Murtha on his sponsor, Nancy Pelosi: Don't underestimate future Madame Speaker. Here's some food for thought from the New York Observer (h/t TPM):

Sure, Ms. Pelosi would much rather have the 74-year-old Mr. Murtha, the architect of her victory five years ago in a party leadership race, as her majority leader than Mr. Hoyer, the man she beat in that bitter contest. And true, some of her closest House allies -- Californians like George Miller and Anna Eshoo, through whom she often telegraphs her wishes -- have busied themselves counting heads for Mr. Murtha. But the story of Ms. Pelosi's role in the Murtha-Hoyer race isn't that she publicly sided with Murtha. It's what she didn't do for him privately -- namely, make phone calls, twist arms, and intimidate the impressionable freshmen with thinly veiled threats that their careers as inside players would be D.O.A. if they crossed her on this. Instead, the soon-to-be-Speaker opened her publicly released endorsement letter by thanking Mr. Murtha "for your letter requesting my support for your candidacy for Majority Leader in the 110th Congress.' The line in which she actually grants the request is buried several paragraphs down the page. If, as expected, Mr. Murtha does go down to defeat on Thursday, the press, and Ms. Pelosi's political tormenters, will have all the ammunition they need to tell the world that she miscalculated and overreached -- that the new House leader is in over her head and has a perilously weak hold on her flock.

No matter what they say, though, the internal fallout will be minimal for Ms. Pelosi. She spotted Mr. Murtha's bid for the lost cause it was and shied away from investing any real capital in it. And it's not like her personal loyalty to Mr. Murtha -- or her distrust of Mr. Hoyer -- is a secret among House Democrats.

The big secret here -- at least outside the Capitol -- is what an adept inside player the incoming Speaker actually is. Indeed, few seem to appreciate the singular position of dominance within the Democratic caucus into which she has masterfully maneuvered herself.

Nancy Pelosi is no political novice; by supporting Murtha she killed more than a few birds with one stone. Within the Democratic caucus, she reiterated the importance of loyalty, and sent the signal that military disengagement in Iraq will be front and center under her watch. But I believe her audience was not only within the halls of Congress; Pelosi understands the growing power of the grass and netroots, and she was willing to take a few slings and arrows from Conservatives and the media in order to throw the Left some red meat. Why would she do this? Pelosi recognises the battlefield over the next two years is not just between the Ds and Rs, or even the Ds, Rs and Bush, but within the Demcratic Party. Pelosi set herself up as standing with the grassroots, opposed to those lobbyist-loving, Washington insiders. Whether or not she runs with those insider dogs for the majority of the time as Speaker doesn't matter, as she'll be remembered as willing to have gone to the mat for Murtha.

Granted, most nascent Progressives see well beyond Murtha's highly touted anti-war rhetoric to his right-wing, corrupt roots, but that's beyond the point. If the Left has a choice between the corrupt populist who stood with us, and the corrupt corporatist who ignored us, I place my bets on the former every time. And so, I think, does Pelosi, at least when it looks like it counts.