A moderate Democrat from North Carolina, Heath Shuler, is likely to challenge outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the post of minority leader. Though Shuler has not send anything in this regard openly so far, he has been sending signals since last month that he would challenge the San Francisco liberal if she refuses to stay away from the race. It is expected that Shuler will launch his leadership bid tomorrow when he appears on CNN's "State of the Union." Shuler is also scheduled to appear on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Monday.
"At this point, no one has come forward, no one in leadership for a long time," It will be very tough. It is probably a race we can't win. But we need a moderate voice in the Democratic Party," Shuler, a former NFL quarterback told the North Carolina weekly newspaper. Shuler's spokeswoman preferred to remain silent on the development.
Democrats lost more than 60 seats in the recently concluded midterm elections and when Pelosi announced after the elections that she would run for the post minority leader, it surprised many Democrats. Rep. Dan Boren of Oklahoma told Fox News last week that the results sent strong message that the voters want the Democrats to think a new strategy for the future. "They want someone to lead the party who is going to be bipartisan. This is very disappointing for a lot of us in the center."
Pelosi told NPR yesterday that she wanted to run because she was willing to finish what she started. "My motivation for running is to be in the strongest possible position to create jobs, to continue the work we did in the previous administration, to preserve Social Security, to protect what we did for health care reform and Wall Street reform," she told the network.
