Tag Archives: Senate

Carper Named to Senate Finance Committee

From the NJ — Tom Carper takes on an assignment to the Senate Finance Committee and gives up seats on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, and the Senate Special Committee on Aging. He keeps his other assignments on Environment and Public Works and on Homeland Security and Government Affairs.

I guess that the good news (for somebody) here is that Carper still gets to be a fully paid lobbiest for the state’s banking industry. There is no doubt that the Senate Finance Committee is a prestigious position though.

Also — according to The Hill Democrats in the Senate will have a 3 vote advantage on all committees, except for Armed Forces and Appropriations which will have a 4 vote advantage.

Why Carney, Why Now?

Ruth Ann Minner must appoint John Carney to the position of US Senator as soon as Joe Biden steps down. Joe Biden is currently number 5 in seniority in the Senate. This is a big deal for Delaware. Joe got his pick of committee assignments, choice accommodations and a bully pulpit for his (Delaware’s) issues.

Check out the anticipated seniority of the incoming Senate. Currently, the new Senator from Illinois will come in at number 92. This ranking assumes that Joe Biden doesn’t resign, Ted Stevens gets to stay, and that Norm Coleman wins in Minnesota. I will grant you that Coleman has a shot of staying, but the other two are foregone conclusions.

This leaves the IL Senator as number 90 (or 89) and makes Delaware number 91. If you also consider the possibility that John Kerry and Hillary Clinton are being considered for the cabinet (although that may be an either/or issue). It is even possible that Saxby Chambliss could be a goner. Speaking of which, there’s Ted Kennedy.

This could put John Carney in the Senate in the high 80’s of seniority. The very complexion of the Senate is going to change in the next few years and having a Senator that is going to be there for 25 or 30 years, starting now makes Delaware a stronger state. It took Tom Carper 6 years to rise to the high 80’s in seniority (he will be at 56 once Joe resigns).

How about this, if Ted Stevens wins his hotly contested reelection bid, Sarah Palin could (possibly illegally) appoint herself to the position in the event of his expulsion from the Senate. Would you really want Sarah Palin being sworn in ahead of John Carney? Or even one of his rivals?

Joe, please resign. Ruth Ann, please appoint John Carney. If not, we run the very real risk of Mike Castle stealing that seat from Beau in an open election in 2010 and having a Senator ranked number 100 and in the minority party.

Georgia On My Mind

Wow. The word out of Oregon is that Jeff Merkley (D) has won the Senate seat. Believe it or not, Mark Begich can still win in AK, as there are still several hundred thousand votes to count. I have also seen a report that says that Al Franken has pulled ahead in MN.

Oh My. Add to this the fact that we will now have a runoff election on December 4th in Georgia, and we have the potential of a good deal of time, money and effort heading to Georgia in the next month. Thanksgiving in Atlanta anyone?

Is Hillary Finally Free?

I wonder how many of Hillary’s life and political decisions were tied to a desire to be President.

Would she have left Bill?
Would she have voted against the war?
Would she have triangulated her position on welfare and poverty?

I’m serious. She has amassed a huge amount of political capital and I think is positioned to take Ted Kennedy’s place as the most powerful Democrat. She really can’t lose her seat for any single vote or even a pattern of votes. New York loves her. She is completely free to vote without fear of being portrayed as “soft on terrorists” or “soft on crime” or “a bleeding heart liberal socialist.” She can actually just take the stand that she wants to take, rather than the one that will become a talking point in a Presidential debate.

I’m starting to think that this isn’t such a bad deal for any of us, especially Hillary. The Lioness of the Senate. Perhaps she should dump Bill.

Live Blogging the Petraeus/Crocker Hearings

Well, I didn’t do it, that’s for sure. Even if I wasn’t working, I’m not sure how much more of the neocon-job I can take anymore.

Both Tom Ricks from the Washington Post and Spencer Ackerman at the Washington Independent did live-blog today’s hearings (Ricks will be doing so tomorrow too). Ricks was in the hearing rooms (taking comments too!) and Ackerman saw it all on CSPAN. I just read through both of them and they are certainly more information rich than the evening (NPR) news (the Ackerman is out-right funny in places). Neither is a real replacement for reporting, I think, but as a replacement for watching several hours of this stuff and knowing what generally happened certainly helps to see how the traditional media creates its narrative.

The Presidential candidates seem to be acquitting themselves well (although McCain — predictably now — loses the details when talking of the affiliation of AQ in Iraq) and their input (as well as the media focus) is a welcome change from the usual campaign trail horserace. Joe Biden as Chairman of Foreign Services Committee evidently did really well — getting Crocker to admit that Afghanistan is probably the better focus area AND reminding Petraeus and Crocker that they cannot bind the next President’s hands in this thing without coming to Congress first.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YqrAfSpn28[/youtube]

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