Just when House Republicans thought things couldn't get any better, House Democrats named Speaker Nancy Pelosi to run their new, almost historically-shrunken minority caucus.The hyper-enthusiastic cheering heard on Capitol Hill following the Democrats' 150-43 vote came from the other side of the aisle. At the other end of the Democrats' very narrow political spectrum, a decimated Blue Dog coalition elected new leadership, naming three co-chairs: Reps. John Barrow of Georgia, Mike Ross of Arkansas and Heath Shuler of North Carolina. Shuler earlier launched a doomed kamikaze mission to unseat Pelosi. He didn't expect to win - no one expected it - and he didn't, but he was eager to give future cover to himself and other Blue Dogs, all of whom had already voted twice to make Pelosi Speaker. The rationale for Shuler's candidacy for leader, translated, meant: "Don't blame me/us. We voted against her." Too little, too late, sir.Washington Post records on congressional voting...(Read Full Post)