Democrats in the US House of Representatives officially elected
Representative Nancy Pelosi of California on Thursday as
speaker-designate, to succeed Republican House Speaker Dennis
Hastert of Illinois when the new Congress convenes in January next
year.
Pelosi would become the first woman House speaker in the US
history, the second in line of succession to the presidency, behind
only the vice president.
She would assume the speakership when the 110th Congress
convenes and formally elects her to the position in early January
2007.
Pelosi, who was born in March 1940 and has been House minority
leader of the 119th Congress, was first elected to the House from
the 8th district of California in 1987.
Also on Thursday, House Democrats elected Representative Steny
Hoyer from Maryland, currently the House minority whip, as majority
leader for the new Congress, rejecting Pelosi's choice, John Murtha
of Pennsylvania.
Hoyer, 67, won the No. 2 party post in the House by a vote of
149-86.
Pelosi said after the election that she was looking forward to
working with Hoyer "in a very unified way to bring our country to a
new direction for all Americans."
On Murtha, her long-time ally, Pelosi extended thanks to him for
"his courage in stepping forward one year ago to speak truth to
power, to change the debate in this country in a way that I think
gave us this majority in this November."
Murtha, 74, demanded an immediate pullout of US troops from Iraq
last year, sparking a fierce debate in Washington over the Bush
administration's Iraq policy.
Democrats won control of both chambers of the legislature in
last week's elections, largely due to American voters' anger over
the lack of progress in Iraq and dissatisfaction with Bush's Iraq
policy.
"Nancy asked me to set a policy for the Democratic Party. Most
of the party signed onto it," he said after the vote.
"I didn't have enough votes and so I'll go back to my small
subcommittee I have on appropriations," said Murtha, who would
become chairman of the House Defense Appropriation
Subcommittee.
Republicans in the US Senate on Wednesday elected Mitch McConnel
as the Senator minority leader and Trent Lott as the minority whip
for the new Congress, one day after Democrats selected Harry Reid
as the Senate majority leader and Richard Durbin as the majority
whip on Tuesday.
House Republicans, who would become the minority party in the
new Congress, would elect their leadership team on Friday.
(Xinhua News Agency November 17, 2006)
