Wannabe Republican hopes to sack Pelosi

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/The-Vote/2010/1113/Ex-football-pro-Heath-Shuler-hopes-to-sack-Nancy-Pelosi

Ex-football pro Heath Shuler hopes to sack Nancy Pelosi
By Brad Knickerbocker

It looks like soon-to-be-ex-Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a challenger to her position as head of beleaguered Democrats in the House of Representatives.

It’s Rep. Heath Shuler, a relatively conservative lawmaker from North Carolina who avoided the Election Day ouster suffered by many “Blue Dog” Democrats trying to hang onto their seats in red districts where tea party-inspired Republicans were victorious.

“It will be very tough,” Shuler acknowledged to the Clay County Progress newspaper in his home state. “It is probably a race we can’t win. But we need a moderate voice in the Democratic Party.”

He’ll no doubt elaborate when he appears on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday and then on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Monday...

because a conservative is the last thing the Democrats need in any position of power.

The rage against Rep. Pelosi is a measure of just how successful she's been at getting things passed despite the party conservatives acting as albatrosses.

I'm always amused by these invisible reps who think they can jockey for leadership positions...

Why these so-called conservative Democrats don't run as moderate Republicans surprises me. Oh wait, no, I'm not surprised. He'd never make it out of the primaries. The Democratic Party seems to be the last refuge of moderate Republicans.

to see how liberal/progressive Republicans used to be. Today's RNC would have been marginalized as anti-socialist John Birchers back then.

Democrats!

Does the stupid burn?

He is a Conservative Democrat get over it, don't vote for him, get overf your prejudices!

What are his plans if he were to become Minority Leader? Roll over and play dead for the Republicans so that they can move ahead full steam with their wild *agenda*?

The meme has gone out that Pelosi has to go because she's supposedly divisive and polarizing but I can pretty much guarantee you that if this Schuler guy wins, he'll soon enough be finding himself on the short end of the Republican's poker. They will mince no words and immediately tag HIM as the most divisive, extreme, and, yes, even most "liberal" Democrat in the House of Representatives. He'll be Rushbo's new "El Diablo" chew toy.

The most jarring thing that I saw (courtesy of Media Matters) in 2008 was how Fox News basically tagged Barack Obama as "the most liberal Senator in Congress" exactly (down to the wording) as they did in 2004 with John Kerry- despite the fact that neither of them could legitimately have been regarded by any serious political observer as such. However, the point is that Fox News Republican Tea Party will go after every single Democratic leader or spokesperson with everything they've got no matter how liberal or even conservative they are, so I certainly hope that Schuler, should he decide to challenge Pelosi for the leadership position, fully realizes it and is prepared for this should he become Minority Leader. Thankfully, most Democrats seem to be rallying around Pelosi and, frankly, I see no reason why she needs to be dumped in the first place and the Republicans, of all people, should DEFINITELY not be allowed to have ANY kind of say in it whatsoever! :mad: They didn't want to work with Pelosi when she first became Speaker and they made absolutely no bones about their hatred of her and they won't work with any other Democrats, be they Schuler or anybody else. THAT is the bottom line.

If Schuler wants to challenge her, then that's his right but if he loses, he (and every other remaining Democrat in the House) needs to back her up and if he can't (or won't do it), then he will need to either shut up or just switch and take his chances with the teabaggers in 2012.