A few weeks back on this site, I factually documented how House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) is quietly working to undermine House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and severely shift the Democratic Party as a whole to the corporate right. And as anyone who watches politics knows, one of the most well-worn paths to do that kind of thing runs right through columnist Bob Novak - a man who has made a living helping smarmy politicians try to undermine progressives in any way possible. That's why it should be no shock to read Novak's column today, essentially regurgitating what I earlier wrote about Hoyer's campaign - but putting it in a positive light, as if it is a good thing for the Democratic Party.
In typical Novak style, he quotes an unnamed, supposedly "liberal" Democrat complaining about Pelosi and trumpeting Hoyer. If you ever read Novak, you know this is one of his classic moves - likely fabricating a source who is supposedly telling him things so that he has a platform to vent his own far-right-wing views under the guise of them being someone else's. Because let's be really, very clear - anyone who has ever worked on or interacted with Capitol Hill knows it is almost entirely implausible that a progressive House Democrat would be a source for a Bob Novak column, which means the supposed "source" was either fabricated out of thin air, or the source isn't a "liberal" or even a Democrat.
Beyond the highly suspicious/implausible/dishonest framework of Novak's piece is its sheer elitism and political idiocy - again, something we should expect from Bob Novak, a man who literally oozes that stale, crumbling-nursing-home-like stench of corruption mixed with male chauvanism that comes with being a 40-year Republican hatchet man in the cushy, wood-paneled confines of Washington, D.C.'s cocktail party circuit. Novak says Hoyer, "the man from southern Maryland, seems a better voice for a party trying to expand its base than the woman from San Francisco." But then look at his proof:
"Today's gap between minority leader and minority whip is wide and visible... Hoyer is unapologetically pro-business and pro-national defense, while Pelosi consistently runs in the opposite direction. Hoyer voted to go to war and for bankruptcy reform, while Pelosi was against both."
So there it is - according to Novak, Hoyer would be a better leader because he voted for a war based on lies that most Americans oppose, and he helped make sure the Democratic Party sold out to the credit card industry on the bankruptcy bill. We are expected to believe that Pelosi's courageous vote against the Iraq War means she is "anti-national security," even though she has advocated focusing more of the military's attention on al Qaeda - the real threat to America. We are expected to believe that Hoyer's votes will somehow allow Hoyer to help the party "expand" - as if it is a documented fact that people in red states support the out-of-control Iraq policy and credit card rip off schemes (they don't). Novak expects us to believe that what Hoyer's corporate lobbyist shakedown operation - euphemistically called "pro-business" by Novak - will help Democrats. And Novak wants us to believe Hoyer has better political skills than Pelosi - even though he is so truly tone deaf that he brags about his lobbyist shakedown operation on his official website - even as Democrats deride the GOP's culture of corruption.
Here's the deal - Nancy Pelosi ain't perfect, but at least she's got a clear sense of conviction, and is willing to stand up for the progressive agenda. Being attacked by Bob Novak as a Democrat is a badge of honor. Similarly, if you are a Democrat who aspires to lead your party as Hoyer does, being venerated by a hack like Bob Novak clearly does you no favors, as an endorsement from him is a sign that you are trying to corrupt your party in much the same way the GOP has been corrupted.