Pelosi Will Run for Leader of House Democrats

From the Associated Press:

Despite widespread complaints about massive losses that will put Democrats in the minority, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday she will try to stay on as leader of her party in the House.

The decision exposed a rift between Pelosi’s liberal allies and the dwindling number of moderate Democrats, who feel besieged and eager for substantive and symbolic changes in direction after Tuesday’s Republican rout. It also is likely to trigger leadership battles farther down the ladder.

Pelosi, the nation’s first female speaker, said many colleagues urged her to seek the post of minority leader in the new Congress that convenes in January. That will be the Democrats’ top post, because Republicans, who grabbed more than 60 Democratic-held seats Tuesday, will elect the next speaker. It will be John Boehner of Ohio, who will swap titles with Pelosi if she succeeds in her bid.

“We have no intention of allowing our great achievements to be rolled back,” Pelosi, 70, said in a letter to her colleagues.

Allies said Pelosi would not make the bid unless she felt she had the votes. Some cautioned, however, that House members vote by secret ballot when electing the leaders of their respective parties at the start of each new Congress. Pelosi’s caucus is more heavily liberal now that many moderate Democrats lost on Tuesday, but even some Pelosi admirers are distressed by the magnitude of the losses.

Several moderates, and even some longtime Pelosi supporters, had openly criticized her in their re-election campaigns, and had urged her to step aside. Pelosi’s Friday announcement caught some off guard.

Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., had told a Louisville TV station on Thursday, “as good a leader as she has been, I don’t think she’s the right leader to take us forward.”

He reversed field Friday after she announced her intentions, and after a senior Pelosi ally, Rep. George Miller of California, called him.

Pelosi “has proven time and time again that she is able to build consensus in a caucus comprised of members from all across the ideological spectrum,” Yarmuth said.

Other House Democrats held their ground.

Read the whole thing here. When this trial balloon was floated last week, we didn’t comment because, really, it seemed too good to be true. When you find yourself in a whole, the first rule is to stop digging. Apparently, the House Democrats can’t keep their hands off the back-hoe. Exit question; what happens to Steny Hoyer?