Griper News: Griper Blade: No Good Choice for House Majority Leader

Unfortunately, the choice facing House Democrats as they choose the House Majority Leader is the same choice too many americans face when they vote at the polls -- a choice between 'sucks' and 'sucks more.'

In deciding the lesser of two evils, dems have to choose between John Murtha and Steny Hoyer; the former being 'sucks' and the latter being 'sucks more.' In Murtha's favor is the way he broke the ice for moderates in opposing the war. That gained him a lot of friends and name recognition among the antiwar crowd and made him the target of right wing nuts who accuse him of being 'far left'. Anyone who opposes the war is 'far left.'

At truthdig, Robert Scheer writes:

...Clarity of purpose in getting out of Iraq is all important, which is why the war’s supporters are so desperate to smear forthright critics such as Murtha. Witness Dick Morris joining conservative commentator Sean Hannity in blasting Pelosi for backing Murtha: “He’s a leftist, he’s a cheerleader for MoveOn.org, and she could have chosen a centrist,” Morris said on Fox News. “Instead, she chose the most left guy she could find.”

Ridiculous. Murtha, a leftist? Maybe on Iraq, but his record on everything from abortion to gun control to Pentagon budgets makes him an old-school conservative Democrat in this country, as centrist as they come. Of course, pollster operative Morris knows this full well, because it was precisely why Murtha’s call for withdrawal was such a political earthquake.