Maryland's Steny Hoyer beat out Pelosi's buddy John Murtha 149-86 in the vote for House Majority Leader.
Considering that Murtha had been telling the world he had the votes, apparently he didn't or couldn't hold them.
Hoyer, considered a "moderate" Democrat by some, liberal by others, was certainly not anywhere near as liberal as Murtha (or Pelosi). Hoyer also doesn't bring the old Abscam baggage that Murtha does, and isn't known as someone that basically would sell out anyone or anything if it would potentially bring home more pork for his constituents.
While I still would have hoped that the GOP could hold the House, and really don't like the idea of "Speaker Pelosi", I suppose having Hoyer hold the #2 position is about as good as we could have hoped for.