Knives Out
The LA Times fired a warning shot last week, letting Nancy Pelosi know that passing over Jane Harman for the chair of the intelligence committee would be bad for her media coverage. This week, they fire the first broadside with intent.
Pelosi indicated as early as last year that she intended to oust Harman from the Intelligence Committee — where Harman expected to become chairwoman if Democrats won control of the House — in favor of someone more to Pelosi's liking.
The move has created dissension within the party. Some Democrats and foreign policy experts argued that Harman, a centrist on national security, is the most credible person for the job. The Congressional Black and Hispanic caucuses countered that it was time for one of their members on the committee to take the helm.
Fresh from Pelosi's fierce and unsuccessful lobbying effort to install antiwar ally John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania as her No. 2, the coming battle over the Intelligence Committee leadership is turning into a showdown where the political has turned personal. And it could undermine the unity that the Democratic Party has hoped to show as it prepares to take the reins of power.
The falling-out between Pelosi and Harman offers a window into how business gets done on Capitol Hill, where personal friendships are often as important as policies and politics. Pelosi in particular is noted for remembering who has been on her side and who hasn't, as evidenced by her support of Murtha for House majority leader over her one-time rival Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, even though Hoyer was widely preferred by the party caucus.
The prospect of conflict between two such powerful Democratic women is tantalizing to gossipy Washington. But the split is so toxic that Democrats in California and Washington won't go near it.
Then it gets quite ugly on the second page:
A Capitol Hill staffer suggested that Pelosi also was miffed that Harman had higher visibility in the media.
Harman, using her platform as ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, landed on Sunday talk shows so regularly that she all but eclipsed Pelosi's rising star as House minority leader. An informal survey of the major talk shows over the last two years found that Harman made 18 appearances to Pelosi's six.
Associates of Pelosi say she was not troubled that Harman was on television frequently, only that Democrats' message on Iraq wasn't being aired.
Some Democrats say Pelosi's choice for intelligence chair is less about personal conflict than fixing a political problem, which ironically began with Harman's return to the House in 2001.
That problem has to do with Harman jumping in seniority over Alcee Hastings. So is this a personal fight or a political? Actually, the article makes clear that it is both and that Pelosi will not get any slack at all from the LA Times. This article is only the beginning, I suspect. The reports will get progressively more nasty as time goes on.
Other Links to this Post
-
The Heretik : Reigning Cats and Dogs — Tuesday, 21 November , 2006 @ 9:23 am
By syn, Tuesday, 21 November , 2006 @ 7:18 am
Hillary’s pals in Hollywood and Mainstream Media are doing a great job killing off Pelosi and the anti-war Left.
Looks like Socialist Clinton is positioning herself as a Centrist in order to get elected by those moderate middle-of-the-roadies who only vote by principles of vanity aka whoever appears American.
Harmon knows whose side to be on and she chose Hillary Clinton’s becaseu Hillary always gets the best coverage.
By Gaius, Tuesday, 21 November , 2006 @ 7:34 am
Somehow your comment posted twice. I deleted the duplicate.
By Sam L., Tuesday, 21 November , 2006 @ 8:18 am
You know this is really only because Pelosi’s from Frisco, and the LA/Frisco thing still lives. How could it not, when Frisco has the John Kerry attitude: they think they’re “high class”, and LA is “so declasse’.”
By Gaius, Tuesday, 21 November , 2006 @ 8:35 am
There is a “hometown favorite” part to this. But it is getting pretty acrimonious already. It will get much worse if Harman is passed over.
By AB, Tuesday, 21 November , 2006 @ 10:11 am
Now if only someone can keep whispering in Pelosi’s ear that she shouldn’t cave since that would mean she’s a weak leader.
Then we can all sit back and watch the show. I’ll really miss her when she steps down as speaker of the house in, oh, 6 to 8 months. She surely provided some entertainment last week.
By Arlo, Tuesday, 21 November , 2006 @ 12:52 pm
Didn’t Harman vote for the Iraq War resolution? Most Democrats in the House voted against it. There might be a lot of them who question her judgement. I think she also supports Bush’s warrantless wiretapping.
By Former Republican, Tuesday, 21 November , 2006 @ 8:59 pm
“The reports will get progressively more nasty as time goes on.”
You’ve forgotten that the LA Times’s is part of the liberal media. So how can they go after Pelosi? If you really believe the business about the media having a liberal bias, you have to believe this story was just a slip. They’ll come to their senses and put out stuff praising her to the heavens.
If they don’t, maybe the media doesn’t allow its liberal leanings to bias its reporting after all. Let’s wait and see what happens.
By Gaius, Tuesday, 21 November , 2006 @ 9:04 pm
Nonsense. It all depends on who they are being partisan for.