It says something about the general, blessed uselessness of the Democratic caucus right now that this paragraph os what leaped out at me:
…what was probably the most dramatic leadership vote in the Democratic caucus, the contest for majority leader in 1976, 38 years ago. The winner was Texas’ Jim Wright, who would go on to become speaker after Tip O’Neill retired 10 years later. The loser was California’s Phil Burton. The vote was 148-147. Burton spent the rest of his life — he died suddenly in 1983, at 56 — trying to track down those who had committed to him but cast their secret ballot for Wright.
That sounds like the backstory for a pretty good political thriller. Or maybe a television episode. God knows that nothing that House Democrats are doing right now qualifies…
Moe Lane
PS: Did they ever find out who did wrong by Burton?