Stuart Rothenberg on the leadership contests:
Pelosi's political antennae appear much less sensitive than I assumed, and if you are a Republican looking for a quick reason to think that you may be able to take back the House in 2008, the incoming Speaker's intervention in the majority leader race – a race that her candidate lost rather decisively – has to give you some reason for optimism.
Instead of generating front page stories about the Democrats' agenda, Pelosi has made herself and divisions within her party the story du jour.[...]
Pelosi doesn't have to like Hoyer to work with him. Her effort to crush him suggests considerable personal flaws that could come back to haunt her. Just as bad, she has taken a non-story for most people and turned it into a lose-lose proposition for herself.
Now, reporters will have the Pelosi versus Hoyer story to kick around for the next couple of years, and Pelosi will forever have started off her historic speakership with a stinging, and very unnecessary, defeat.
True that. This wasn't just an irritating leadership fight. It was a worrisome indicator of Pelosi's effectiveness and political savvy, or lack thereof. Same with the Harman-Hastings issue. Democrats could have been enjoying a week of glowing press here. Instead, we've seen the (legitimate!) return of the "Democrats in disarray" storyline.
She's got to get it together up there.
