Pelosi risks prestige for Murtha

Sen. Trent Lott has been rewarded with the Republicans' No. 2 spot.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi faces a major leadership test today, barely a week into her new role, as Democrats vote on her choice for majority leader. She's supporting a lawmaker once caught up in a bribery scandal and known more recently for trading votes for pork projects.
Pelosi's prestige is on the line after endorsing longtime ally John Murtha of Pennsylvania to be the No. 2 Democrat in place of her longtime rival Steny Hoyer of Maryland.
Senate Republicans, meanwhile, rewarded Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott with their No. 2 post, four years after the White House helped push him out of his job running the Senate for making remarks interpreted as endorsing segregation. President Bush, on a trip to Russia and Asia, telephoned Lott on Wednesday with congratulations.
Pressured to step down from the Senate's top spot in 2002, Lott returned to the Republicans' second-ranking position by nosing out Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who had made an 18-month bid for the post. Lott promised to defer to Minority Leader-to-be Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Private meeting
House Republicans, finding themselves in the minority for the first time since 1994, will meet in private today to hear presentations from candidates for their half-dozen leadership posts. Their election is scheduled Friday. Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois is leaving the leadership ranks. Replacing him as the House's top Republican became a two-man race Wednesday between current Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio and conservative challenger Mike Pence of Indiana. Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton of Texas dropped out and endorsed Boehner.
Hoyer entered the Democratic leadership race with a substantial lead by most counts, but he has been scrambling to hold onto supporters since Pelosi's surprise intervention Sunday. He appeared to carry a lead into today's secret ballot despite Pelosi's opposition.
"I think we're in very good shape. I expect to win," Hoyer said. "I expect that we will bring the party together and become unified and move on from this."
With characteristic gruffness, Murtha said the opposite was true: "We're going to win. We got the votes," he said Wednesday afternoon on MSNBC's "Hardball."
Allies such as Rep. George Miller, D-Calif. -- also a top confidant of Pelosi -- have been working this week to peel away votes from Hoyer.
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