One wonders, watching Steny Hoyer, the Maryland Democrat and House Majority Leader, what the last year would have been like for Democrats had he been the face of the party in the House rather than Nancy Pelosi. Hoyer is an extraordinarily intelligent politician and a fluid speaker, and sounds reasonable even when the policies he is advancing are less so. He would have not have become the lightning rod that Nancy Pelosi has proved to be, and that Harry Reid is.