Nancy Pelosi

Nancy Pelosi has been elected Speaker of the House. As speaker, she is second in line for the presidency.

Speaker-elect Pelosi used her new-found power to support Rep. John Murtha for House majority leader, however Pelosi's backing failed to help Murtha and Rep. Steny Hoyer was elected instead.

CNN is currently featuring this story prominently online, and is using the solid headline "Pelosi wins then loses." What I find interesting about the CNN article is that it provides a substantial amount of space discussing why Murtha was a bad choice for majority leader and offers little insight about Hoyer.

This prompted me to examine other sources.

The Reuters story linked above (primarily about Pelosi's victory) says only that Murtha "helped lead the charge against the Iraq war that helped Democrats win control Congress, drawing the appreciation of virtually all members. Yet some Democrats were concerned about his record on congressional ethics and opposition to proposed reforms."

The Reuters story about the majority leader race regurgitated the Pelosi story: "Pelosi, a California liberal, had endorsed Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, who helped lead the charge against the Iraq war that was a key factor in races for the House of Representatives and the Senate."

So, both Reuters and CNN are using the angle that Pelosi's support was ineffective and her own party went against her wishes. The AP feed has a similar view, saying "The balloting marked a personal triumph for [Hoyer], but also a snub to Pelosi, moments after the rank and file selected her unanimously to become speaker when the House convenes in January."