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Politics

Parties sort out leadership roles

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published November 15, 2006

WASHINGTON - Democrats voted Tuesday to keep the leaders who guided their takeover of the Senate last week but were sharply divided over whether to give Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi the majority leader she wants in the House.

Former Republican Majority Leader Trent Lott, meanwhile, opened a bid to return to the Senate's Republican leadership after being ousted in 2002 for remarks interpreted as endorsing segregationist policies of the 1940s.

"Yes, I am," the Mississippian said Tuesday when asked if he was challenging Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander to become minority whip in the newly elected Democratic-majority Congress next year.

Senate Democrats voted Tuesday to make Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada majority leader and Dick Durbin of Illinois No. 2 in the party hierarchy. Both have held the same positions but with "minority" instead of majority in their titles since the 2004 election.

In the House, a bitter battle was under way after Pelosi said she would prefer Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania to be majority leader over her current lieutenant, Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland. Critics accused Pelosi of backpedaling on a pledge to scrub the House of corruption.

Both Murtha and Hoyer claim to have commitments from a majority of Democrats, but the balloting Thursday will be secret and commitments often change.

Murtha has fought charges for years of using his senior status on the defense appropriations subcommittee to award favors to campaign contributors.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a Democratic-leaning watchdog group, accused Pelosi of compromising her ethical standards by endorsing Murtha.

"I thought we were above this type of swift-boating attack," Murtha said in a statement issued by his office, referring to unsubstantiated allegations about John Kerry's Vietnam War heroism from a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth during the 2004 presidential race.

Democrats have settled on South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn to succeed Hoyer as the party's whip, or chief vote-counter, making him the highest-ranking black member of the new Congress.

Reid told the Associated Press that a top priority for the remainder of the lame-duck session will be confirming Robert Gates as defense secretary, succeeding Donald Rumsfeld. "The sooner we can move it forward the sooner we can get rid of Rumsfeld," he said.

House Republicans are scheduled to choose their new leaders Friday. There is a three-way race among John Boehner of Ohio, Mike Pence of Indiana and Joe Barton of Texas for minority leader, and a conservative challenge by Arizona Rep. John Shadegg for the GOP whip's post now held by Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri.

[Last modified November 15, 2006, 01:53:49]