It seems to be becoming consensus that at the current rate, Speaker Pelosi will become Majinority Leader Pelosi in November (assuming that she doesn’t get ousted from leadership, but that would be a likely outcome). Too bad there’s little chance that she’ll lose her seat.
And of course, November is still over nine months away. The Republicans have plenty of time to screw this up.
“The Republicans have plenty of time to screw this up.” Sad, but true.
Wouldn’t Pelosi becoming Majority Leader be a de facto ousting from leadership? Or, since she might lose her seat as Speaker because of an election involving both parties, it’s not necessaily an ouster?
If the Dems retain their majority status in the House, I don’t see why they would take the time to remove Pelosi from the Speakership but retain her as the Majority Leader.
Unless, of course, you meant Minority Leader, or something else. It’s not entirely clear, based on your verbiage and the link you posted.
In any case, since there’s no Constitutional requirement to be a House Rep. to be Speaker, maybe it’s time to recruit an outsider?
If I were a House Democrat, I’d be looking to oust Pelosi ASAP and try to stop the damage she’s doing to the party. Fortunately, I’m neither a member of the House nor a Democrat, so I get to sit back and watch them implode with pleasure.
Yes, the Speaker of the House is majority leader. Minority leader
I think Rand meant minority leader. If the Donkeys lose the house under her “leadership”, not only would she not be the minority leader, they would make her scrub the tiles in the Ladies’ restroom with her own toothbrush.
The democratic party would do much better if they ended their seniority system. This would allow the moderate democrats to have more influence over their party. Of course, the current congressional leadership is not about to do this because they are the far-left who would loose all political power.
Anyone reading this who is a democrat should write their party’s leadership to urge them to end the seniority system.
Michael Barone is today saying over a hundred Democrat seats could be in play!
I’m convinced at this point that the one major accomplishment of the Obama administration will be to make Carter look good.
I’m expecting Mrs. Clinton to abandon ship sometime shortly after this November, if not before, in preparation for a 2012 primary challenge.
“I’m expecting Mrs. Clinton to abandon ship sometime shortly after this November, if not before, in preparation for a 2012 primary challenge.”
If that happens, I am buying an industrial grade popper, and a feed-sack of popcorn and we all meet at Rand’s in California for the Democratic National Convention fireworks.
Donkey Dethwatch 2012!
If she challenges hopey-changey in the primaries, no matter who wins, it could forever split the Democrat Party.
If she wins, the Black vote will abandon the party, if she loses, the Pumas will proabally throw hopey-changey under the bus for good and some of the female vote goes bye-bye.
I’m expecting Mrs. Clinton to abandon ship sometime shortly after this November, if not before, in preparation for a 2012 primary challenge.
Or Obama might make her his running mate in a desperate attempt to win back some bitter gun-clinging voters…
The Republicans have plenty of time to screw this up.
I look forward to all the new and creative ways the Stupid Party will find to keep the undeserving Dems in power.
I’m convinced at this point that the one major accomplishment of the Obama administration will be to make Carter look good.
James Buchanan is finally seeing some competition for the title of “the worst ever President” (and that includes Jefferson Davis.)
St.Hillary! is now looking for someone to play the role of Eugene McCarthy, to soften the Community-Organizer-in-Chief up, if not force him to quit like LBJ did (despite winning that primary),so she can step in and take the Bobby Kennedy role.
“Or Obama might make her his running mate in a desperate attempt to win back some bitter gun-clinging voters…”
Doubtful. Veep selections matter little. Besides, Hillary wants payback.
Perhaps, perhaps not. My guess is that above all she wants the presidency.
<pedant>
The Speaker is the leader of the majority in the House, but there is another, separate post called “Majority Leader,” which I gather used to be the majority’s actual leader once upon a time, when the Speaker was the House’s equivalent of the Senate’s President Pro Tem, who is only the majority party’s most senior member in that chamber.
I believe Steny Hoyer is currently House Majority Leader, and would almost certainly be Minority Leader if the Republicans win control this November — unless of course the caucus blames him as well as Pelosi for the loss.
A Speaker whose party loses the majority is usually not going to be elected to a leadership post afterward. Though Denny Hastert didn’t run for Minority Leader after the 2006 election, I would have been surprised if he could have won if he had run.
</pedant>
Which is exactly why no Democrat will ever make her his veep nominee. Vice-presidents are supposed to be assassination INsurance, not ENsurance
“The Republicans have plenty of time to screw this up.The Republicans have plenty of time to screw this up.”
They (formerly “we”) have a remarkable track record of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
I would count on nothing…
Or a 3rd party candidate coming in and totally mucking up the works.
I don’t see the Dems jettisoning Obama, no matter how bad things get and no matter how much Hillary would like to deep six him. That would completely alienate the 90% African-American vote that is one of the foundations of Dem political strength. I could see Hillary brokering a deal whereby Biden gets the heave ho and she gets the VP job.
Bear in mind that if the economy improves, and it will improve eventually, despite this administration’s efforts to destroy it, the public mood will improve and Obama’s numbers will rise. If the Republicans think they can coast solely on Obama’s unpopularity, they will squander this opportunity.
@Paul: “I’m convinced at this point that the one major accomplishment of the Obama administration will be to make Carter look good.”
Obama makes WJ Clinton look good, but he still has a ways to fall to make Jimmy look good.
IMHO, of course.
If Massachusetts were the “canary in the coal mine” it’s claimed to be the Democrats are screwed beyond belief. Brown won every MA congressional district where Democrat outnumbers Republicans by less than 65%. Extending this nationwide there are only 103 “safe” Democrats in the House right now. Of course it’s not that simple: the GOP doesn’t have quality candidates like Brown in 100+ districts (though they could) and the power of incumbency counts for a lot. But the 2010 midterm is shaping up less like 1994 – which was really a realignment due to redistricting more than anything else – than 1938. There disgust with FDR’s failure to end the Depression shifted 81 seats from (D) to (R). First there are at least 40 GOP-leaning seats currently held by Democrats. Then there are ~100 “mixed” seats with neither a GOP nor a Democrat majority, in which the winner has to attract support from independents to win elections or hope the other side stays home.
In Massachusetts, independents broke 75-25 for Brown and that’s fairly close to nationwide polling. In most elections voters overwhelmingly give Congress poor marks as a whole but think their own representative is an exception to the rule: that’s not the case this year, at least for Democrat seats. Couple with this that GOP partisans are fired up and Democrat partisans less so and you have the makings of a political bloodbath.
The problem with the “Well, Republicans can screw this up and usually do!” meme’ is that independents don’t really flip-flop. If they’re mad at the incumbent they stay mad and don’t vote for him. If they like the challenger they vote for him, if they don’t like the challenger they stay home and don’t vote at all. There are at least 40 seats Democrats hold only because in 2006-2008 they overwhelmingly won the independent vote. Lose the independents and they lose those seats even if the independent turnout for the Republican is low. The GOP would have to something on the order of get caught hiding bin Laden to throw the independents back into the arms of Pelosi & crew. Obama thinks enacting health care “reform” would have a similar effect (“Once we explain how WONDERFUL it is, they’ll come flocking back!”); Obama is a fool. He’s been talking nonstop about ObamaCare since July. Every time he opens his mouth support drops. This isn’t green-eggs-and-ham: it doesn’t really taste good and shoveling it down their throats isn’t going to change any minds.
The Republicans have plenty of time to screw this up.
(Buries face in hands.) Oh, don’t remind me. The RNC called me last month to solicit funds; I let the pleasant young man on the other end of the line know that they would not see a dime from me until I was convinced they wouldn’t simply repeat all the idiotic things they had done from 2000 to 2006. All my donations are targeted to specific candidates. ..bruce..
Even more pedantic addition to McGehee: Speaker of the House and House Majority Leader are two entirely different positions. The Speaker of the House is the presiding officer of the House of Reps. In theory it’s a nonpartisan position; the Speaker is supposed to remain above the fray of floor debate and keep the House functioning smoothly. In practice the Speaker is always a member of the majority party, but there’s no statutory requirement for that. Currently the Speaker is the individual whom I refer to as the Bitch Princess.
House Majority Leader is a separate position. The Majority Leader’s duty is to act as leader of the majority party in floor debates and votes, and work with the Majority Whip to ensure that rank-and-file Representatives of their party remain in line. The current Majority Leader is Steny Hoyer, but it appears that his power and prestige have been largely usurped by the Bitch Princess.
Rand wrote: Too bad there’s little chance that she’ll lose her seat.
In a year when a Republican won a senatorial seat from Massachusetts, I’m not taking anything for granted.
I read somewhere years ago that there’s no statutory or constitutional requirement, even, for the Speaker to be a member of Congress.
Not sure if that was true — or if it was true, whether it still is.