Keller @ Large: Moulton's Challenge To Pelosi Not Looking Too Good
BOSTON (CBS) - North Shore Congressman Seth Moulton is widely admired for his stellar military service. And he proved his political courage four years ago when he challenged longtime incumbent John Tierney in the Democratic primary and beat him, over the objections of virtually the entire local party establishment.
But now, Moulton is drawing decidedly mixed reviews for his latest crusade, an effort to prevent Nancy Pelosi from regaining the speakership when the Democrats take charge in early January.
"This election was a call for change, a call for change in our country, change in our party," Moulton said.
Come again?
If anything, Pelosi is drawing kudos for her role in helping Democrats pickup more than 30 House seats and regain the majority. Moulton claims to respect Pelosi's past work, and his objections seem to have more to do with her age than anything else, not much of a platform.
The claim for new leadership made more sense two years ago when House Democrats suffered through the latest in a string of disastrous elections.
But on Tuesday, an even younger reformer than Moulton, Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, trashed Moulton's anti-Pelosi push, claiming it could make party leadership more conservative, not less, and that Moulton was offering "no vision, no common value, no goal."
And it seems women in particular aren't thrilled with Moulton's amorphous denunciation of the first female speaker. Give Moulton credit, I guess, for going out on a limb. But he might soon need something to break his fall.
Share your take with me via email at keller@wbztv.com, or use Twitter, @kelleratlarge.
