Business as usual

Conservatives like me hoped that the GOP would lose the House, not only because it hugely deserved to, but because we thought that was the only thing that would cause it to repent of its big-spending, lobbyist-loving, corrupt ways, get back in touch with why voters gave control of the House to them in the first place, and come back ready -- and deserving -- to win in 2008. So it is pretty startling to see that the lesson the surviving House GOP members have learned is ... that it's necessary to re-elect Boehner and Blunt, the same membership team that led them to defeat. Barring a change of heart by Friday, it looks like the Old Guard will retain its leadership roles, with the conservative reform team of Pence and Shadegg sidelined. Don't the GOP members understand how this looks outside the Beltway bubble? Most people don't follow the intricacies of legislative maneuvering. They'll just look at this, note that after having lost its majority in large part because of corruption, the GOP did nothing to change its leadership, and conclude that wow, they really are the Stupid Party.

Meanwhile, conservatives like me banked on the Pelosi Democrats making foolish moves that would remind voters why they don't trust the Democrats with power. Happily from a partisan perspective, but unhappily from a good-government one, that seems to be happening already. I appreciate John Murtha's stance on the war, and some of what he stands for otherwise, but for Pelosi to get behind his bid for Majority Leader after promising to run the "most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history" is stunningly obtuse. Ruth Marcus of the WaPo explains why Murtha is ethically unfit for the job. Murtha's an old political ally of Pelosi's, so it seems that politics as usual trumps the need to be, or at least to appear, ethically sound. The rank-and-file of House Dems looks like it's going to go for Steny Hoyer, so Pelosi'll probably lose this one.

Much worse is what Pelosi looks like she's about to do with the chairmanship of the House Intelligence committee. Jane Harman is the ranking Democrat, and is widely respected as able, experienced and very smart. She's on Pelosi's bad side, so she's out. Coming in is Alcee Hastings, a Florida Democrat who was a federal judge until he was impeached by a Democratic Congress for bribery and other corruption on the bench. Unless Pelosi shifts course, this is the scoundrel she's entrusting with custody of some of the country's most sensitive intelligence secrets. Hastings happens to be black, and the speculation is that she's afraid of cheesing off the Congressional Black Caucus. What a gift to the GOP a Hastings appointment would be: the appearance that the Democratic speaker is too petty a politician to let a solid, well-respected rival run Intelligence, and too politically correct to risk passing over a black man for the extremely sensitive job, corrupt though he appears to be. But what a loss to the country.