Democrats Arrive in Promised Land, Start Attacking Each Other

Ah yes, they've reached the promised land. The only problem is it's beginning to look like a cross between Gary, Indiana and Camden, New Jersey. You've got the Steny Hoyer Bloods faction
doing drive-bys with the John Murtha Crips posse. As the old adage goes, "when you're enemy is busy destroying himself, don't do anything to stop them." Or something along the lines. Anyway, get the porcorn ready. This should be fun.

We begin with today's Opinion Journal, where John Fund delves deep into John Murtha and Congress's "culture of corruption,", and what a fetid cesspool it is.

House Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi's endorsement of Rep. John Murtha for majority leader, the No. 2 position in the Democratic leaderhsip, has roiled her caucus. "She will ensure that they [Mr. Murtha and his allies] win. This is hardball politics," Rep. Jim Moran, a top Murtha ally, told the Hill, a congressional newspaper. "We are entering an era where when the speaker instructs you what to do, you do it."

But several members are privately aghast that Mr. Murtha, a pork-barreling opponent of most House ethics reforms, could become the second most visible symbol of the new Democratic rule. "We are supposed to change business as usual, not put the fox in charge of the henhouse," one Democratic member told me. "It's not just the Abscam scandal of the 1980s that he barely dodged, he's a disaster waiting to happen because of his current behavior," another told me.

As for Abscam, a recent book by George Crile, a producer for CBS's "60 Minutes," provides damning evidence that Mr. Murtha escaped severe punishment for his role in the scandal only because then-Speaker Tip O'Neill arranged for the House Ethics Committee to drop the charges, over the objections of the committee's outside prosecutor. The prosecutor quickly resigned in protest.

Outside observers are equally aghast that Mr. Murtha could win tomorrow's election. Thomas Mann, a Brookings Institution scholar who is co-author of "The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track," told the Los Angeles Times that "John Murtha is not the right poster child" for a Democratic House that says it wants to sweep away corruption.

Melanie Sloan, the liberal head of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, was cheered on by Democrats six weeks ago when she helped reveal the Mark Foley scandal. Now she says that "Ms. Pelosi"s endorsement of Rep. Murtha, one of the most unethical members of Congress, show that she may have prioritized ethics reform merely to win votes with no real commitment to changing the culture of corruption."

Read the rest. An exhaustive piece on the rampant corruption of the Democrats and the rank hypocrisy of the media for turning a blind eye.

Meanwhile, the battle between Murtha and Steny Hoyer is bubbling. More from The Hill

Another House Democrat supporting Hoyer was incensed that Pelosi was exerting her influence in the caucus, asserting that it will further divide House Democrats.


"It's an incredible display of hubris," the member said, using a phrase Pelosi herself sometimes employs. "It's incredibly egotistical. We all got us here. We all got us to the promised land and Steny's not going to the promised land?"

The member said regardless of who ultimately wins the Thursday election, the effect of Pelosi actively getting involved in the race would reverberate for some time.

"Either way, it's damaging," the member said. "She will have a tremendous road to hoe to repair the damage she's done."

They've reached the vaunted promised land and the internecine warfare is just beginning.

Have at it, boys and girls.

Update 3:45 11/15

More fun to come as Carville takes on the Nutroots:

Carville Says Dems Should Dump Dean over “Rumsfeldian” Incompetence