19 Democrats Give Thumbs Down to Nancy Pelosi for Speaker of the House

WASHINGTON -- It was no surprise that Ohio Rep. John Boehner would be elected speaker of the House in the new Republican-controlled chamber today. What was surprising was that the old speaker, Nancy Pelosi, was not the choice of 19 of her fellow Democrats.

In the end, Pelosi was elected leader of the House Democrats. But in what could be called the last bark of the much-diminished Blue Dog coalition, 11 Democrats voted for North Carolina Rep. Heath Shuler. The conservative former football star had run for re-election on a vow not to vote for the San Francisco liberal for speaker and had made noises about challenging her for the post.

Civil rights icon John Lewis of Georgia got two votes, from Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona and John Barrow of Georgia.

California Democrats Jim Costa and Dennis Cardoza swapped votes, each choosing the other for speaker.

Jim Cooper of Tennessee, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio and the outgoing majority leader, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, each received one vote from fellow Democrats.

And two other Democrats chose no one at all. Sanford Bishop of Georgia voted present. And Peter DeFazio, a liberal Oregonian who criticized Pelosi for selling out over the recent tax bill, didn't bother to show up at all.

Matthew Green, a congressional expert at Catholic University of America, said that the number of same-party defections was more than twice the number in 1997. That's when Republican Rep. Newt Gingrich was re-elected speaker, a few months before members of his own party challenged his leadership.