The Hoyer win over Murtha reminds me a little bit of the Democratic caucuses in Iowa in 2004: The party’s heart was with an angry, antiwar, left-wing Howard Dean, but in the final hours it swung to its senses and used its head to choose John Kerry. Say what you will about Kerry–he did far better in the general election than Dean would have done, and was interpreted, certainly at the time, as a small-c conservative selection.