A once-bitter rival now slow-dances with Pelosi

When she picked a man to be her partner in power a little more than a year ago, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) didn’t choose Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), but she was in his arms last week for a slow dance at the Democratic retreat.

After Hoyer trounced Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) for the majority leadership, his embrace of the Speaker was merely the stiff price of doing business together. But last weekend, on the final night of the Democrats’ retreat, it sealed a rapprochement rather than a mere détente.

{mosads}While it remains in doubt who was leading during their slow waltz, relations between the top two House Democrats are a far cry from the enmity that was apparent in the 109th Congress.

“He was undercutting her all the time,” said Murtha of the relationship between Pelosi and Hoyer when they held the posts of minority leader and minority whip, respectively.

That may be why, after the 2006 election, Pelosi endorsed Murtha’s challenge — a fiasco that raised doubts as to whether Democrats could (or even wanted to) unify and govern effectively. Would they instead lapse into the fractious disorganization that has characterized the party in the past?

The answer, it has turned out, is no. Power seems to agree with Pelosi and Hoyer, and it has done a world of good for their relationship with each other. Ironically, Pelosi’s opposition to Hoyer in late 2006 seems to have improved their relationship; a fight, after all, sometimes clears the air.

Rep. Ed Pastor (D-Ariz.), a 16-year House veteran, said the mutual lack of affection was obvious.

“When we were in the minority there was a lot of friction,” he said, noting that Pelosi and Hoyer rarely joked and their body language was noticeably stiffer when together.

“Over the years they have improved,” he said. “Now they joke a little bit more and are more sociable.”

Another Democrat said that after Pelosi supported Murtha, her relationship with Hoyer “had nowhere to go but up.”

Hoyer said he and his one-time rival realized the success of their own careers depended on setting aside their old feud.

“Nancy and I are professional in the sense that we understand essentially that if we’re not together neither one of us is going to be successful and our caucus is not going to be successful,” said Hoyer in an interview in his spacious offices on the first floor of the Capitol, one of the many new perks he has accrued since Democrats captured the House.

The trappings that come with majority control have eased tensions that once flared between the two leaders.

Fundraising dollars have poured into party coffers, committee assignments are plentiful and, most importantly, Pelosi and Hoyer control the agenda and have the power to tailor legislation precisely to their liking. {mospagebreak}

“Being in the minority, you always have less of everything and there’s always fights about stuff,” said Steve Elmendorf, who served as chief of staff to former Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.), who led Democrats during eight of their years in the minority. “The majority has focused everyone’s attention on staying in the majority and trying to get something done. They spent almost 12 years in the minority, and they didn’t like it.”

Hoyer took the votes to back him — and Pelosi unanimously — as a clear instruction from colleagues to both himself and Pelosi that they must sheathe their daggers and work on the party’s sweeping campaign agenda.

{mosads}“I think the fact that the caucus spoke with such a large voice and voted for Nancy unanimously — it was a message to both of us that ‘You’re both good, we want you to both be our leaders, and want you to work together,’ ” Hoyer told The Hill.

Pelosi and Hoyer first met more than 40 years ago as interns in the office of former Sen. Daniel Brewster (D-Md.) and have climbed through the ranks of politics together, eyeing each other as they rose. Hoyer first won election to Congress 27 years ago. Pelosi joined six years later. Both landed seats on the Appropriations Committee, one of the chamber’s most powerful panels.  

It wasn’t until 2000 that their competing ambitions clashed head-on during a race to replace former Rep. David Bonior (Mich.) as Democratic whip.

The race had its share of under-the-table kicks and jabs. But the bruises healed eventually because Hoyer and Pelosi kept their attacks behind the scenes.  

“You know Nancy and I ran against one other for two and a half years and … there were no public attacks and no public assertions — I don’t mean there weren’t some private elbows thrown; we both wanted to win,” said Hoyer, adding:

“Nancy is a tough pol.”

Murtha said: “She’s the boss, so he’s got to adapt to her and he has. He understands his position. She sets the agenda and he does the day-to-day work, setting the schedule in the House.”

Elmendorf said that Pelosi needs an experienced and disciplined lieutenant such as Hoyer to take control of the details of running the chamber so she can concentrate on her party’s broader vision.

Freedom from the mechanics of the floor has allowed Pelosi to concentrate on setting the Democratic agenda and stepping in to solve major ideological disagreements.

Despite accusations from Republicans that the Democrats have accomplished little during their first year in power, congressional scholars argue that Democrats have done much to silence skeptics.

“In 2007, the level of energy and activity on Capitol Hill picked up markedly,” wrote Thomas Mann, a scholar at the Brookings Institution, in an essay published in The New York Times.

Hoyer defended his party’s record of accomplishment, noting that several components of its “Six for ’06” campaign promise have been signed into law.