On Thursday, the Democrats elected Maryland Congressman Steny Hoyer as their Majority Leader, rejecting the endorsement of their incoming Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.

On the day she announced that she was endorsing Congressman John Murtha over Hoyer, I told two of my Democratic friends that it was a tremendous blunder. Pelosi could have accomplished the same thing — at least as far as her caucus was concerned — with a few phone calls. But by making her endorsement public, she made the race about her. And now that her favored candidate was squarely defeated, she appears weak — both internally an externally.

Pelosi faces serious challenges in keeping her caucus together. Many its newest members are moderates — likely to be sympathetic to the Republican position on a wide range of issues. By undermining her own authority right from the outset, Pelosi has made it much more difficult to manage these new members. And now she has an avowed enemy as her number 2.

That’s fine with me. Between the somewhat-shrunken Republican conference and a handful of blue dogs, there might be a working majority for some conservative legislation. Certainly, the combination is enough to stop any particularly egregious legislationf from coming out of the House.

In any case, Pelosi’s endorsement was unnecessary, ineffective and will ultimately undermine her ability to leader her caucus.