Another great reason to back Hodes for Senate 2010.
He's not your father's Democrat. He's got the necessary resolve to oppose corruption, even in his own party. Thank god someone is willing is to vote their conscience, not just their wallets. Pelosi's office had better understand they will lose national support by pushing to protect Murtha and other senior Dem lawmakers and their ties to the PMA Group
As the House prepared to vote this week on Republican Rep. Jeff Flake's push for an ethics investigation involving Rep. John Murtha and other senior appropriators, Democratic leaders sent an unmistakable message to their members:
"Don't be a Flake."
That was the subject line of an e-mail that staffers for first- and second-term Democrats received Tuesday from Rep. Chris Van Hollen, assistant to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The message said that Democrats would once again be "voting to table another Flake resolution" - and it made clear that leadership would have its eyes on any Democrats even thinking about defecting.
It is the junior and newest members of Congress who are getting the most pressure from Leadership. Anybody who thinks this is a political move on Paul's part, doesn't understand the man. He represents us, and as a former prosecutor its not in his DNA to overlook crimes, just because they were done by members of his team.
So far, the younger members are getting trounced - but the momentum is in their favor.
Despite the directives from Van Hollen and Clyburn, two more Democrats voted for Flake's resolution Tuesday, and they are the two newest Democrats in the House: Rep. Scott Murphy of New York and Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois.
"This is who I am," Quigley, an outspoken reformer from a safe seat in Chicago, told POLITICO afterward. "You can't change your DNA when you get here."
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New Hampshire Rep. Paul Hodes - one of the first Democrats to back Flake's resolutions - said more junior lawmakers are more inclined to support a beefed-up ethics committee and broader ethics reforms.
"Having not been in Congress a long time, it may be easier for the younger members, the more junior members, to push for these reforms than it may be for more established members," he said this week.
