Steny Hoyer will most likely be the next Democratic Party Leader in the House of Representatives despite Nancy Pelosi’s support of John Murtha today. But Pelosi’s move is gutsy — and diplomatic.

Aspen Institute Berlin Director Jeffrey Gedmin has an interesting and useful piece, “Even Happier than the Democrats,” in the Weekly Standard today. Gedmin previously directed the New Atlantic Initiative at the American Enterprise Institute.

Something strange is cooking on the John Bolton nomination. . . First of all, John Bolton’s nomination was formally sent to the U.S. Senate yesterday, Thursday, between 10:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.

Tomorrow I am taping a show at CNN‘s studios in New York on the process by which big decisions about stand-out “personalities” — heroes and villains — are made. This show will be a special segment on Time‘s “person of the year” decision-making process.

I have a call into Speaker Nancy Pelosi for a comment on President Bush’s efforts to push John Bolton’s nomination again today.

Word has just reached me from a well-placed source that the White House has continued to push John Bolton’s confirmation prospects as US Ambassador to the United Nations despite the election outcome.

Here is an interesting article on the demise of moderate Republicans by Alex Wayne of Congressional Quarterly but whch appears in the New York Times apparently (at least on the web).

That’s it. The Dems will take the Senate. They now have a one seat margin. Long live House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Long live Majority Leader Harry Reid. Joe Biden takes the helm at Foreign Relations. Carl Levin will Chair Armed Services. Big changes.

“Brokeback Mountain” may not have won the Oscar for last year’s best movie, but it may have softened up some of the tough-guy crowd in Montana. It’s official. Jon Tester has de-listed Conrad Burns from the Senate roster as of January 2007.

Republican leaders are reporting that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is stepping down. Former CIA Chief and Texas A&M President Robert Gates is taking Rumsfeld’s chair. I hear the troops are overjoyed.