"The speaker and I have discussed scheduling'' for the House next year, Hoyer said after a meeting with Pelosi. `"It did not include'" the draft, he said.
"We have made very clear what our priorities are, and they're 'Six for '06,''' Pelosi said, naming the Democrats' plan to address what they call the middle-class squeeze by raising the minimum wage, repealing the richest tax cuts and increasing education grants. "Mr. Hoyer will be leading the action on the floor.''
And if Rangel, as chairman of the important Ways and Means Committee, thought he could push the issue through his committee, he was wrong. And Pelosi made sure he knew it.
"Mr. Rangel will be very busy with his work on the Ways and Means Committee, whose jurisdiction is quite a different jurisdiction,'' she said.
The Ways and Means Committee, with all its power over raising and lowering taxes, sure seems like the "kiddies' table" this morning.
Rangel joins his fellow anti-war buddy John Murtha of Pennsylvania, who is widely credited in Democrat circles with providing the backbone within the Democrat caucus on the issue of Iraq. But he was benched as soon as the Democrats won and had to behave like it.
The Democratic majority is an eclectic coalition that requires the trickiest of all balancing acts. The next couple of years will be exciting. There will be plenty of agonizingly long policy battles over minimum wage, raising taxes, and more entitlements. But at least there will be some comic relief on occasion from the unhinged liberals that are the core of the Democrat majority.
At the end of a tiring political season, Charlie Rangel has given us a little extra to be thankful for.