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The beginning of the end for Nancy Pelosi?

Unveiling Of Vaclav Havel Bust At US Capitol

The beginning of the end for Nancy Pelosi?

No one in Washington much cares what House Democrats do these days. House rules tend to ensure that the main job of members of the minority is to show up, vote “no” and lose.

And in the next Congress, Democrats will have fewer House seats than they’ve had since 1930.

So not much notice was directed last week at Nancy Pelosi’s first major intraparty defeat since she became House Democratic leader in 2003.

Pelosi won that post by defeating colleague Steny Hoyer and has been winning fights ever since. Until now.
That defeat was the election by the Democratic Caucus of New Jersey’s Frank Pallone to be ranking minority member of the Energy and Commerce Committee over Pelosi’s choice, California’s Anna Eshoo.

The election was conducted by secret ballot, and the vote was 100-90.

Those numbers are a vivid contrast to the totals in what was probably the most dramatic leadership vote in the Democratic caucus, the contest for majority leader in 1976, 38 years ago.

The winner then was Texas’ Jim Wright, who’d go on to become speaker after Tip O’Neill retired 10 years later. The loser was California’s Phil Burton.

The vote was 148-147. Burton spent the rest of his life trying to track down those who had committed to him but cast their secret ballot for Wright.

Do the math. There were 295 House Democrats voting in the caucus that year. This year, 190.

There is a direct linkage between Phil Burton and Nancy Pelosi. Burton was succeeded by his widow, Salah Burton, who endorsed Pelosi as their successor in 1987.

Though he never reached the leadership heights Pelosi has, Burton played a critical role in changing the House.

For years, liberal Democrats had decried the seniority system, which automatically made conservative Southerners (and/or senile members) committee chairmen. There they could and did block liberal measures from coming to the floor.

After the big Democratic victory in the 1974 election, Democratic leaders conceded that the caucus could vote on chairmanships if a sufficient number of members signed petitions for such a vote.

Burton organized a drive to get signatures to challenge every chairman: Nothing personal, signers could tell chairmen; we just want everyone to get a vote.

Three chairmen were defeated, and the principle was established that the Caucus determined chairmanships. That principle was reaffirmed when Pallone won last week.

http://nypost.com/2014/11/28/the-beginning-of-the-end-for-nancy-pelosi/

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