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Middlemen No More? Emergent Patterns in CongressionalLeadership Selection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2008

Douglas B. Harris  and
Garrison Nelson
Douglas B. Harris
Affiliation:
Loyola College in Maryland
Garrison Nelson
Affiliation:
University of Vermont
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Extract

For a quarter-century, conservative Republicans have used the “SanFrancisco liberal” label to place Democrats as outside the Americanmainstream. Imagine their dismay as the 110th Congressopened in January 2007 and Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco Democratwell to the left of most of her party, ascended to the podium asspeaker of the United States House of Representatives. This was, tobe sure, a departure. Traditionally, House Democrats had selectedideological “middlemen” for top leadership posts (Truman 1959), particularly those from the“Austin-Boston alliance” that held unbroken sway in House Democraticleadership selection from the initial teaming of Speaker Sam Rayburnof Texas and Majority Leader John McCormack of Boston in 1940 tothat of Tip O'Neill of Boston and Texan Jim Wright in the 1970s and1980s. During this time, Democrats “almost never” selected“‘Americans for Democratic Action-type’ liberals” as leaders(Peabody 1976, 470).

Information

Type
SYMPOSIUM
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , January 2008 , pp. 49 - 55
Copyright
© 2008 The American Political Science Association

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