Photo: Dennis Cook/APNancy Pelosi, the next speaker of the House of Representatives, made a real hash of choosing her deputy.
That was the verdict from most bloggers when Ms Pelosi's fellow Democrats roundly rejected her pick of House majority leader (the number two spot in the House). She wanted John Murtha - the party's leading critic of the Iraq war - but her party colleagues opted for Steny Hoyer, Ms Pelosi's current number two.
While Democrats respect Mr Murtha for his anti-war stance, they questioned his selection given his closeness to lobbyists and the fact that he was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1980 Abscam bribery scandal. In choosing Mr Murtha, Ms Pelosi seemed to be disregarding her own pledge on election night that this would be the cleanest Congress ever.
Stuart Rothenberg, a political independent, was agog at Ms Pelosi's decision to reject Mr Hoyer in favour of Mr Murtha.
Nancy Pelosi's decision to pick a public fight with her second in command, Maryland Rep Steny Hoyer, is so incomprehensible, so politically stupid that it has raised eyebrows among political journalists and insiders of all type.
Republicans were cock-a-hoop at Ms Pelosi's stumbling start. Jay Reding put his finger on the problem confronting the first woman House speaker: holding together the liberals and the conservative "blue dog" Democrats (a reference to the "blue dog" paintings of the Cajun artist George Rodrigue).
The Democrats are caught in the same Catch-22 they've been caught in for years. They got to the majority based on winning in conservative districts, but now the liberal base that has the real power in the party is going to want results. One side of the other is going to have to win, and if the blue dogs win the liberal left may walk away.
But, let's face it, all political parties are fractious and the Republicans have their own divisions between the religious right and their more liberal members.
Over in the Senate, where the Democrats have a razor-thin majority, the presence of Joe Lieberman - Democrat turned independent - clearly sticks in the craw of leftwing Democrats.
But Mr Lieberman, who has hinted that he might vote with the Republicans, has a big fan at the African American Environmentalist Association blog.
Connecticut might be in a precarious position in meeting its electricity needs, but they produced real power by re-electing Desert Fox Joe Lieberman. Go get 'em Joe.
