House of Cards

Here's Rob at AMERICAblog on what Murtha hath wrought:

After Reid shut down the Senate, John and I discussed how something like this could be pulled off in the House. I told him it was nearly impossible, Gingrich had done it on occasion, but the rules are too easy for the majority to stomp on the minority. Let me say something the President can't seem to say:

I was wrong.

What happened tonight was impressive. Yesterday Murtha first spoke up and tonight, the entire House is shut down. For those that watched it, Republicans looked scared. They were in disarray. There was no adult leadership, and it showed. And all it took was one Democratic voice (a voice with standing being the key public relations lesson to be learned here) to unravel the entire House.

My take-away from tonight was also how the Democrats worked together as a party. Unlike the Republicans whose little egos all needed to be fed, parceled out in 30 second and two minute speaking opportunities, Democrats let one man speak for them. They came together and can go home to their districts proud that they finally spoke up and gave voice to the 60% of this country that sees that the Iraq policy is a failure and who have longed to hear our government recognize that mistakes have been made and they need to be remedied.