Heath Shuler finished a very distant third in his bid to challenge John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi for speaker of the U.S. House.
Shuler earned just 11 votes in the Speaker race, reports Barb Barrett. Fellow North Carolinians and Blue Dogs Larry Kissell and Mike McIntyre voted for Shuler, who also voted for himself.
That's compared to 241 votes for the Republican Boehner and 173 voted for now former Speaker Pelosi. Of course, Shuler knew he wouldn't win, but was trying to show that not everyone in the Democratic caucus supports Pelosi.
UPDATE: Andrew Whalen, the executive director of Shuler's PAC, wrote to inform Dome that the 11 votes for Schuler is "the most dissenting votes recorded in modern history" for partisan defections during a vote for Speaker.
Six Republicans voted present, and four voted for other people, when Gingrich was elected to his second term in 1997.
