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Associated Press:
Hoyer tapped for party's No. 2 House spot — WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats on Thursday chose Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer to be House majority leader over Rep. John Murtha, brushing aside the choice of House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi. — Hoyer was elected on a vote of 149-86 not long …
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Carl Hulse / New York Times:
Hoyer Beats Pelosi's Pick in Race for No. 2 House Post — House Democrats chose Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland as their majority leader today after a bruising fight that cast a cloud over the party's post-election celebration. — The election of Mr. Hoyer over Representative John P. Murtha …
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Arianna Huffington / The Huffington Post:
Murtha Loses... But It's Still a Victory for Pelosi — The votes are in and Steny Hoyer is the new House majority leaders, winning out over Jack Murtha 149-86. — For all the reasons I've made abundantly clear, I would've loved to see Murtha as Majority Leader.
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Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Hoyer humiliates Pelosi, defeats Murtha, 149-86 — Just in at Fox. Soak it in. Updates coming. — Update: Unless there was some eleventh-hour shift to Hoyer — which is unlikely, considering that 90 Democrats had already publicly committed to him yesterday — then Murtha lied to Matthews's face on Hardball yesterday.
CNN:
CNN Political Ticker AM — For the latest, breaking political news, check for updates throughout the day on the CNN Political Ticker. All politics, all the time. — Compiled by Stephen Bach — Making news today... - House Dems meet to elect leaders by secret ballot this morning …
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Associated Press
Robert D. Novak / Washington Post:
Pelosi's First Mistake — As the new House majority caucus prepared to pick its leadership today, Democrats were trying to make the best of the inevitability of Nancy Pelosi as the party's first speaker in a dozen years. They have put out the word that she was not serious in endorsing Rep. John Murtha for majority leader.
Washington Post:
Pelosi Splits Democrats With Push For Murtha — Speaker-to-Be Accused Of Strong-Arm Tactics — A showdown over the House majority leader's post today has Democrats bitterly divided only a week after their party took control of Congress and has prompted numerous complaints …
jules crittenden:
Murtha vs. Hoyer: Sit Back and Enjoy ... Today offers the kind of spectacle that is a small consolation prize for a party out of power: the victors pummeling each other over the spoils. The election having been lost, today's majority leadership race is a win-win.
Andrew Taylor / Associated Press:
Pelosi faces no-win outcome over Murtha — WASHINGTON - Democrats moved toward picking a top lieutenant to speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi and hoped to put to rest a politically costly family feud that intensified just days after they reclaimed the House from GOP control.
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CNNMoney.com:
Nobel economist Milton Friedman dead at 94 — Advocate of deregulation whose influence soared after Ronald Reagan became president. — NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Milton Friedman, the Nobel-prize winning economist who helped shape and define free-market economic theory, died Thursday at the age of 94 in San Francisco.
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Holcomb B. Noble / New York Times:
Milton Friedman, a Leading Economist, Dies at 94 — Milton Friedman, the grandmaster of conservative economic theory in the postwar era and a prime force in the movement of nations toward lesser government and greater reliance on free markets and individual responsibility, died today at He was 94 years old.
PR Newswire:
Airport Arrest Turns Up Nuclear Info — A man was arrested at Detroit Metropolitan Airport after officials say they found him carrying more than $78,000 in cash and a laptop computer containing information about nuclear materials and cyanide. — Sisayehiticha Dinssa, an unemployed U.S. citizen …
Ellen Knickmeyer / Washington Post:
Sectarian Strife in Iraq Imperils Entire Region, Analysts Warn — BAGHDAD — While American commanders have suggested that civil war is possible in Iraq, many leaders, experts and ordinary people in Baghdad and around the Middle East say it is already underway, and that the real worry ahead …
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Scott Helman / Boston Globe:
Romney hires ex-Bush ad man — Producer noted for tough tactics — Governor Mitt Romney, who continues to sign up big-name political consultants for a probable presidential run, has hired bare-knuckles GOP ad man Alex Castellanos, a veteran of presidential campaigns known for his tough ads against Democratic candidates.