I'm increasingly convinced that we'll all be a lot better off if the vote on the House majority leadership turns out Pelosi 1, Master Rahm 0

A lot of us have been unenthusiastic about Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi's preference for Jack Murtha as House majority leader. He's more conservative (on issues other than Iraq) than we'd like, and there are those lingering ethical questions. My thinking was, well, whatever happens, happens.

When Howie and I chatted about this the other day, he singled out two points that nevertheless made him uneasy about the prospect of Steny Hoyer winning the fight: the perceived damage to Speaker Pelosi's authority, and the spreading of what I had described as the "tentacles" of Master Rahm Emanuel, who is clearly the muscle behind Hoyer. The more I think about those factors, the more persuaded I am, especially in light of the unspeakably vile campaign of vilification the Master has waged.

Howie was also thrown by apparent support for Hoyer from upstanding House liberals like Henry Waxman and Barney Frank. I'm going to have to guess that they're tender innocents who don't understand what's going on any better than the big-name Dems who were shipped in by the Master during primary season to campaign for Rahmpuppets, apparently unaware that they had been flimflammed into campaigning against grass-roots Democratic candidates.

The other day I ventured that, contrary to the imaginings of people who suppose that Master Rahm is a relentless attack dog on behalf of Democrats, he spends 95 percent of his time, energy and resources fighting Democrats, not Republicans. I also suggested that if the Master considers that an overstatement, I would welcome his estimate--is it more like 90 percent? 85 percent? Now I'm thinking that maybe the 95 percent was conservative.

Party leadership battles are natural and inevitable. Sometimes they get ugly. But the scumbag Emanuel has crossed a line here--no, several dozen lines. He has waged open warfare with Karl Rove-style viciousness and dishonesty, publicly sliming the man preferred by the leader of their party in the House to be her number two. Note that there are no issues of policy at stake in the Emanuel scorched-earth campaign against Murtha. It's supposed "ethics" concerns, from a man who doesn't have an ethical cell in his polluted carcass.

The sudden surfacing of the Abscam tapes????????? If that can be traced back to Master Rahm, he should be promptly drummed out of the party. (Whoever is responsible should be.)

Apart from the antiquity of that tape, let's try to stay for just a second in some kind of touch with reality: What we see there is a young Jack Murtha turning down the bribe offer. Let me say that once again: What we see there is Murtha turning down the bribe offer. Yes, he says something about seeing how we can work together, but that is in fact the way Washington works, and there isn't necessarily anything corrupt about it. How much trust and cooperation a pol gives a lobbyist or would-be contributor does in fact depend on the kind of working relationship they develop.

Meanwhile, do you suppose there exists anywhere any video of Master Rahm turning down money?

It now seems clear that the potential damage to Pelosi's authority--before she even assumes the speakership--isn't either incidental or accidental. Isn't it obvious that Master Rahm has targeted her? I worry a lot less about Jack Murtha's more-conservative-than-I-wish politics (the majority leader after all isn't the principal policymaker in the leadership--he's there to back up the agenda of the speaker) than about Steny Hoyer's role (whether he understands it or not) as a 24/7 thorn in the speaker's side. Isn't Master Rahm making it clear that he doesn't intend to let her do anything that doesn't have his approval?

You have to figure that the way Master Rahm does business, he's a likely candidate to turn up any day now floating in the Potomac. Meanwhile, Democrats have to learn to treat him as if he's wearing a permanent UNCLEAN sign around his scruffy neck.


UPDATE: THE RESULTS ARE IN

Hoyer won 149-86. The "Republican Culture of Corruption" will now have to be called the "Insider Culture of Corruption"


UH-OH, WATCH YER BACKS, HOUSE DEMS

I suppose it's theoretically possible that poor Jack Murtha, lying there in the muck, a victim of the Man Who Would Be Karl Rove and Tom DeLay All Rolled into One, will be the last victim of Rampaging Rahm. Surely somewhere in the history of the human race there is one instance of a bully who was satisfied rather than encouraged by being allowed to have his way. If not, well, isn't there supposed to be a first time for everything?

And presumably among those 149 Dems who voted for Sniveling Steny, there are a bunch who just thought he would make a better majority leader than Murtha, and can't necessarily be counted on to do Master Rahm's bidding on all future occasions. The best hope is that the Master, who we know thinks he's way smarter than any evidence corroborates, will fail to consider this and overreach, exposing himself for what he is.