Hang Pelosi and Reid Around Democrats' Necks

Democrats gained political traction in the '90's by caricaturizing Newt Gingrich (with the complicity of the mainstream media) and selling the idea that a vote for any Republican was vote for Gingrich.

The great thing about Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid is that they require no caricturization and therefore, no assistance from the mainstream media, who would not offer their cooperation anyway.

Pelosi and Reid are exactly who they seem to be and no amount of filtering and media applied pig lipstick can obscure that. So, why not campaign against Reid and Pelosi in every contested Congressional race? Even Democrats recognize the necessity to distance themselves from their party's leadership.

Half a dozen freshman Democrats took to the House floor one late-October morning to cast their lot with Republicans.

Their actions went unpunished by the Democratic leadership that day, as they have on many other occasions in recent weeks. The symbolic gesture -- casting nay votes on approving the House Journal, essentially the minutes of the previous day -- would have no bearing on the leadership's agenda.

While they overwhelmingly support that agenda, the bloc of freshmen has begun casting votes against such minor procedural motions in an effort, Democratic sources and Republican critics say, to demonstrate their independence from their leadership. The number of votes that the potentially vulnerable newcomers to Capitol Hill cast against House leaders is tallied and watched closely by interest groups and political foes.

Such is the political life of many of the 42 freshman House Democrats, a sizable number of them moderates and conservatives who must straddle the fence between supporting their party's interests and distancing themselves from a mostly liberal leadership as they gear up for their first reelection battle next fall.

To confuse statistics that would show how often Democratic freshmen vote with Pelosi, they have begun to cast contrary votes on minor procedure issues as part of a strategy to create a phony record of independence.

In recent months, Democrats in battleground districts have been criticized by Republicans, who have tried to paint them as close to the new House leadership.

"While these Democrats might claim to be independent voices for their districts, the differences between them and Nancy Pelosi are purely aesthetic," said Ken Spain, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. This year, the GOP committee launched a Web site to track the percentage of votes that 28 of the freshmen cast with Pelosi, whom Republicans say will be a polarizing figure in conservative districts next fall.

That is why procedural votes are important to freshmen, according to Democratic aides. House Republicans this year turned to a procedure known as a "motion to recommit," offering what is typically a routine method of sending bills back to committee as politically charged amendments. With a wink and a nod from Emanuel and Hoyer, some endangered freshmen frequently vote with Republicans on tricky GOP motions to keep their votes from being used against them in 30-second campaign sound bites.