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.
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, a decorated Vietnam veteran who favors an immediate drawdown of U.S. troops in Iraq, has fought charges for years of using his senior status on the defense appropriations subcommittee to award favors to campaign contributors.
He voted against a Democratic package of ethics reforms earlier this year and was touched by but never charged in the Abscam bribery scandal a quarter- century ago.
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. “This is not how we restore integrity and civility to the United States Congress.”
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 in the new Congress.
Rounding out the Democratic leadership roster in the Senate, Charles Schumer of New York will continue as the chairman of the party’s campaign fundraising committee.
Schumer also will add “vice chairman” to his title, making him No. 3 in the leadership and a chief strategist.
