Two days before Nancy Pelosi announced she was running for House Minority Leader, Blue Dog Heather Shuler tried to pre-empt Pelosi by declaring he would run for Minority Leader if she ran:
"If there's not a viable alternative [to Pelosi] -- like I said all along -- I can go recruit moderate Members to run in swing districts," Shuler said on Thursday. "In that situation, I could do it better than she could, and that's what it's going to take.”
The next day, Pelosi called Shuler’s bluff, and announced she would run for Minority Leader.
It’s been four days since Pelosi’s announcement now, and Shuler has still hasn’t followed through on his grand threat. As Barb discussed yesterday, the best Shuler’s allies have been able to muster is to leak a draft memo to Fox News, written by an unknown number of defeated, anonymous members of Congress.
That really sums up the weakness of the Blue Dog position. Their strength is Fox News, defeated members of Congress, half-formed threats they don’t follow through on, and anonymous leaks. No wonder Pelosi isn’t scared of them.
If we keep showing our support for Nancy Pelosi by signing the petition supporting her as Democratic Leader, there is a good chance we can end this fight without Shuler ever formerly declaring his candidacy. Imagine the message if, in the first major intra-party fight after the 2010 elections, the Blue Dogs are forced to embarrassingly back down, and show just how empty their threats really are.
Join over 25,000 other Kossacks, and sign the petition in support of Nancy Pelosi as Democratic Leader in the House. I should have an opportunity to deliver the petition to her personally later this week, so she will know you have her back in this fight.