Dems Defeat Pelosi’s Pick For Powerful Energy & Commerce Seat

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif. meets with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014, the day after President Barack Obama's State of the Union address. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s choice for a powerful committee position was defeated by the Democratic conference on Wednesday, a rare intra-party setback for the Californian.

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) won in a 100-90 caucus vote to be ranking member of the Energy & Commerce Committee, according to two Democrats in the room.

He defeated Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), a close Pelosi ally who won the steering committee vote for the position by a 30-19 margin one day earlier.

Pallone was next in line for the position, with Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) retiring in January. But Pelosi had been pushing for months to help Eshoo leapfrog the New Jersey Democrat. On November 10, she wrote a “Dear Colleague” letter endorsing Eshoo and urging Democrats to back her for the job.

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  1. So seniority isn’t important if the leader has another person in mind?

    Come on, Nancy. You’re better than this.

  2. Good. I’m glad her pick lost. That’s a karma slap there, Nancy. While I personally support a lot of Ms. Pelosi’s positions, I did not support her in turning down Ms. Duckworth’s request to vote from home. That was disgusting display of politics.

  3. Avatar for dont dont says:

    it’s the Duckworth payback.

  4. Avatar for dont dont says:

    When Karma bites you in the ass it is the worst!

  5. It was a display of playing by the rules. What Rep. Duckworth asked to do is prohibited…it is a violation of House rules. Pelosi upheld the rule…as she has no authority to authorize breaking it.

    Now, lots of GOP’er journo’s planted “display of politics” crap about that act. Seems you fell for it.

    As for the “motion to change the rules” crap. It had ZERO chance of passing. The GOP majority isn’t going to change rules to allow another Liberal vote. That is NOT going to happen. It would have been an embarrassment and set a bad precedent. Pelosi is not an evil person…but by all means Democrats…paint her that way. Its what you do…its why you lose and will continue losing.

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