Wankery 101

A headline proclamation from the New York Times…

Many Say Leadership Race Damages Democrats’ Image

OK, Ellen Tauscher sounds a note of modest concern...

“It’s four days that we haven’t talked about our message and built on the euphoria.”

…and Steny thinks the whole thing is "somewhat distracting," though he seems confident that "…we will bring the party together and become unified…"…but there's not much mention of meaningful damage there. And "many say"? Not that many, unless you count Ray LaHood's pals...

“I can’t believe they are self-destructing before they even get started,” said Representative Ray LaHood, Republican of Illinois. “Everyone on our side is giddy.”

Of course, Carl Hulse can't really be blamed for the headline, can he? Unless you think his overwrought lede, rather than the actual reporting that follows, inspired it...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 — House members acknowledged on Wednesday that the increasingly bitter contest for majority leader was sullying the image of unity and new direction that Democrats hoped to convey.

Nope, it's just wankery, pure and simple. Hardly unique, though. Of course, it's worse when we feed the wankers. For instant, the Clintonista Liberation Front (Carville and Greenberg) serve up a steaming pile to Adam Nagourney, who digs right in...

The Democrats are celebrating their big victory of Nov. 7 with recriminations, finger-pointing and infighting, no matter that they won control of the Senate and the House for the first time since 1994.

Of course, it's not just in the Times. Stuart Rothenberg frets that...

Now, reporters will have the Pelosi versus Hoyer story to kick around for the next couple of years…

…as though reporters would have been otherwise unaware that there's been a rivalry between the top two House Democrats for some years now. In the blogosphere, Ezra Klein legitimizes the story line with an exclamation...

...we've seen the (legitimate!) return of the "Democrats in disarray" storyline.

...as though the story line had ever gone away.

From the lofty view of the leftish media, David Corn seems a little too eager to self-fulfill his own prophecy...

There's no way to spin this: this was a big loss for incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi…this vote will be depicted as a slam on Pelosi and on the start-withdrawing-now Democrats.

Of course, if Nancy Pelosi hadn't done everything she could for her longtime friend and caucus ally Jack Murtha, we can only imagine the story line. "Pelosi Dumps Pal!" "Loyalty Not A 'San Francisco Value'!"

Whatever.

People who actually care about the fate of our new majorities would do well to heed Arianna this time...

It bodes well for Pelosi that was willing to spend her political capital right off the bat -- especially on the issue that will define her time at the helm. Far too many modern politicians save their political capital until it's lost all its value.

Meanwhile, eternal vigilance, folks, because the wankers are everywhere, and for the most part, the conventional wisdom is foolish.