Learning The Hard Way: Majority Gets Whipped

Oregon's Democratic representatives were split on the morning of Thursday's vote. Rep. David Wu planned to support Pennsylvania Rep. Jack Murtha's bid for majority whip. Rep. Darlene Hooley favored Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer hadn't yet announced his decision, but wrote to his constituents that the vote would be "a test about our leadership and about the nature of our Democratic majority, and our ability to deal with difficult decisions." How right he was.

The new Democratic leadership in the House stumbled upon an important lesson - one it apparently needed to learn. Politics is compromise, and liberal and moderate Democrats are going to have to find a way to live together if they want to accomplish anything in Iraq or domestically.

Liberal Speaker Nancy Pelosi had picked Iraq-War opponent Murtha as her number two. But conservative Blue Dog Democrats rebelled in favor of the more moderate Hoyer. Many of the Blue Dogs had been shut out of leadership posts and they weren't happy.

Media commentators are going to make a big deal about the "big loss" for the Democrats, and how Murtha's now infamous description of the ethics bill as "crap" and his old ABSCAM troubles came to haunt him. All of this is probably true.

But the good news is its very early in the new Congress. The Democrats have the opportunity to find consensus before the big issues of immigration, budget and war arrive. Let's hope they are quick learners.