Project Logic Ga

The Washington Post has a database of congressional votes and I decided to look at votes for Speaker of the House. There have been times when moderates and/or centrists couldn’t bring themselves to vote for certain candidates for Speaker.

I remember my first congressional boss saying that he liked Democrat Gene Taylor of Mississippi because he was a smart guy and stood by his convictions.  After legislative business for the day, Taylor would join others in floor speeches about waste, fraud, and spending.

Taylor voted “present” for speaker in the 104^th Congress and Newt Gingrich became Georgia’s third Speaker of the House (Howell Cobb and Charles Crisp being the others.)  In the 105^th Congress, Gingrich won again but three other Republicans received votes and Rep. Connie Morella joined four other GOPers in voting present.  Mrs. Morella was a Maryland moderate from suburban D.C. who was often at odds with the Far Right in her party. 

In the 108^th Congress, Taylor voted for defense hawk John Murtha for speaker while Texas conservative John Stenholm voted present with two others.  He did the same in the 109^th Congress and Dennis Hastert again won the speakership.  In the 110^th and 111^th Congresses, Taylor voted for Speaker Pelosi but you get the feeling that he respectfully couldn’t vote for a fellow Democrat he didn’t want to be speaker.

In the 108^th Congress, Republican Ginny Brown-Waite voted for Pelosi but Hastert of her party won. 

Since the speaker controls the House, that second vote of every congress is the most important vote for two years.  The speaker vote is public record but a members’ record in presidential voting isn’t.  The strongest indication of a House members’ views might be who he or she backs for speaker, the person who will control the committees and the legislation that reaches the House floor. 

Rep. Jim Marshall of Georgia has voted for speaker four times and voted Mrs. Pelosi each time.  He could have voted present, voted for a conservative Democrat like Murtha or even a Republican but he voted for the gentlelady from San Francisco.  Her leadership helped support the election of President Obama and her ultra liberal district’s opinions don’t dominate her speakership as some might think. 

At the same time, Hillary Clinton, Barrack Obama or John Edwards never got Marshall’s public support during the  presidential race.  He didn’t support McCain, who won Marshall’s congressional district, or any of the GOP presidential candidates.  His support would have been welcomed in rural Georgia.  So, he voted for Pelsoi but can’t tell us whom he picked for the White House.  I wished he said he was with the Democrat team and fighting daily to pull them away from the Left, which I think is the case, but this mystery stuff is inexplicable.

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/speaker-elections/