Here's one of those throw-away lines in a newspaper which just sits and percolates awhile before the true beauty of it all explodes in Technicolor across the mental video-screen.
Quote:
Ordinarily, a party's leadership structure is set by the caucus in advance, and all members are expected go along with the decision. In the eight years Rep. J. Dennis Hastert, Illinois Republican, has been speaker, he's never had a protest vote cast against him.
Mrs. Pelosi, whose voting record is considerably more liberal than many of her fellow Democrats, has never enjoyed that luxury. In last year's election for speaker, one Democrat opposed her for the top post. Four Democrats opposed her in 2003, with three of them simply voting "present" as a protest.
Such protest votes are a sign of dissension within a party. But in the upcoming Congress -- where Democrats could hold the majority by just one or two seats -- any members who vote for someone other than Mrs. Pelosi or simply decide not to vote could trigger parliamentary mayhem.
If Mrs. Pelosi were to fail to win, the speakership would go to the highest vote-getter, most likely Mr. Hastert. Democrats would later win it back by settling on a leader after an intraparty showdown that could pit Mrs. Pelosi against Mr. Hoyer.
But many insiders say Mrs. Pelosi has already moved to protect herself from Mr. Hoyer by privately encouraging another conservative Democrat -- Rep. John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania -- to announce earlier this year he will run for the party's No. 2 position if Democrats gain control of the chamber. Mr. Murtha, who is conservative on many issues but has lately become a hero of the left for demanding that troops be withdrawn from Iraq, is considered a formidable challenger.
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What if Pelosi guessed wrong, and Hastert does become Speaker, especially when Dems are expected to take the House? Murtha may be the spoiler, all right---but not the one Fran FranNAMBLA was trying to create.