Murtha to drop bid for majority leader post

Breaking on CNN...

They don't want to look like they're counting their chickens...

and the timing was odd.

What the hell is WRONG with Democrats?

Pelosi has got to go. She's in over her head.

Maybe with things seeming to go Bush's way all of a sudden they felt it was a good idea?

before any election?

I mean, months before an election?

Counting chickens before they're hatched always gets you covered in chicken shit, no matter what.

It was stupid. I was surprised at Murtha.

It doesn't make us look very competent.

Thanks!

LBN Moderator

http://www.tnr.com/blog/theplank?pid=20387

BREAKING--MURTHA PAUSES BID:

Jack Murtha is suspending his bid for House Majority Leader in a possible Democratic Congress until after the midterm elections. Here is Nancy Pelosi's statement:

In the spirit of unity to achieve our goal of winning a Democratic majority in November, Congressman John Murtha has informed me that he will suspend his campaign for Majority Leader until after we win a Democratic Majority of the House.

"I appreciate Mr. Murtha's continuing cooperation and leadership in our effort to win a Democratic House to take America in a New Direction for everyone."

Update: Note that Murtha is only suspending, and not abandoning, his campaign. I'm not sure what the distinction entails. In my original post, I hastily misinterpreted the news as a total withdrawal--apologies; I need some time to digest and report out what this means.

Sorry...

That's part of my job here.
:hi:

:hi:

...is that Pelosi went to Murtha and told him that the last thing we need now is to play "circular firing squad" and split House Democrats into pro-Murtha and pro-Hoyer camps. Jockeying for position in the majority can wait until after we get that majority.

I'll bet that the more conservative dems flipped out and threatened to bust up important coalitions unless Murtha waited to make an issue of party-wide support for his Iraq plan.

Waiting is OK with me. Murtha's convicted and will take it up again if at all possible. I'm happy he let us know that he's willing to do that. I just hope the gyrations don't make his district election difficult.