New leadership of the Senate.

[Mass]

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=76285

[ProSense]

1. Looks the same except

for a couple of titles. Am I missing anything?

[TayTay]

2. Not quite, do the Math here

Jeff Bingaman, Chairman of Committee Outreach -- As Chairman of Committee Outreach, Senator Bingaman will provide a voice in the Democratic leadership for Committee Chairs. Bingaman will harness the Committee Chairs' tremendous knowledge and experience, and ensure their important committee work is advanced in a united and consistent manner.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, Vice Chair of Committee Outreach -- As Vice Chair of Committee Outreach, Senator Clinton will work closely with Senator Bingaman in helping to coordinate the committee work of the Democratic Caucus.

Hmmmmm, alos:

Thomas R. Carper, Deputy Whip; Bill Nelson, Deputy Whip; Russell D. Feingold, Deputy Whip -- Serving as Deputy Whips, Senators Carper, Nelson and Feingold will play critical roles in marshalling the Caucus's forces.

Hmmmm, throw the liberals a bone.

[Mass]

3. She was chairman in the previous congress.

I wonder why she switched? (and she is the only 08 potential candidate in the leadership as well).
(there was no vice-chair, so the position was created for her).
http://democrats.senate.gov/steering/index.cfm?pg=6

[ProSense]

4. Feingold was a deputy whip before, but

interesting, as Mass points out, that Clinton and Bingaman switched positions.

[Mass]

5. They did not change. A position was created to keep Hillary in the leadership

Also, they do not have a woman in the 3 first positions. They pushed Patty Murray so that Schumer could be third.

[TayTay]

6. Very interesting.

They created a vice chair position with the epxress intent to promote what the Committee Chairs are doing and get the word out to the general public on that. Then put Hillary in that position. Hmmmmm. Me thinks they are playing obvious favorites. Then again, maybe they are trying to really keep her, long term, in the leadership.

[ProSense]

7. This is what appears to have happened:

New: Debbie Stabenow, Chair of Steering and Outreach Committee
Old: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Chair of Steering and Outreach Committee

New: Jeff Bingaman, Chairman of Committee Outreach
Old: Paul S. Sarbanes, Chairman of Ranking Member Outreach

New: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Vice Chair of Committee Outreach -- As Vice Chair of Committee
Old: Jeff Bingaman, Vice Chairman of Ranking Member Outreach

[Mass]

20. You're right. I missed that totally.\nt

[ProSense]

8. This is the new position:

Charles E. Schumer, Vice Chair of the Conference

[TayTay]

9. Do any of these people chair commitees outright?

Like Teddy Kennedy will outright chair HELp, Leahy will Chair Judiciary and KErry SBA.

[ProSense]

10. Only one I see is

Byrd, currently ranking member on appropriations committee!

[TayTay]

11. Yeah, but he is just Pro Temp

that's not heavy lifting.

[ProSense]

12. I see! What do you make of this:

Yesterday:

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/111406/clinton.html

Today:

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/111406/schumer.html


Here's a photo from AP:

[TayTay]

13. Hmmm, interesting

Lots of tea leaves. I wonder if she wants to run or wants to go up the ladder to being Sen. Majority leader.

Sen. Kerry has a Committee Chair. He is one of those they do outreach TO. (He will have more staff on SBA and will no doubt have a veritable blizzard of press releases dealing with stuff he thinks is vital for small business.)

Looks good, btw. Odd that he is in the pic. They must have just broke from the caucus. Wonder how that went and how Lieberscum and Kerry & Kennedy got along.

[wisteria]

14. My guess is she is covering herself on both fronts. n/t

[ProSense]

15. Can't figure it out, but this is interesting:

http://www.rollingstone.com/nationalaffairs/?p=794

[wisteria]

18. It is not a forgone conclusion that Vilsack will poll well in his state.

Right now he isn't doing well. One thing, if this does play out like RS is suggesting than this dashes a lot of Edward's efforts in Iowa and Nevada.

[ProSense]

19. Good points! n/t

[MBS]

21. I'm inclined to believe this

To me, Vilsack has not even a shred of a chance at the nomination, so I always figured there's some other reason he's running . It just doesn't make sense otherwise.

[karynnj]

22. But if they make Iowa not significance

NH can pick a favorite son neighbor. Edwards did almost nothing in NH after doing well in Iowa. I wonder how HRC stabbing Kerry in the back plays. Even if NH decides that he can't win, from all accounts he is very well liked as a person. Gratuituos meanness when someone is defending himself can leave a bad taste in the mouth.

[karynnj]

17. He looks like he is speaking to Schumer

Note that Schumer raised $25 million more than Dole - What was that "Heyjohn" nonsense?

It's interesting that thye focused on Finance.

[TayTay]

23. Finance is a very powerful committee

Sen. Kerry has been on that Committee only since Jan of 2001. It is a very, very prestigious assignment for serious legislators and usually you have to wait years for an opening to get on that committee. (Except for Chuck Schumer, but that is a tale for another time, sigh!)

This Committee writes the tax law for the US. Sen. Kerry had to give up 16 years on Banking in order to take the assignment.

Karen: Who was focusing on Finance, I missed the reference. (I am a bit slow on the uptake today, sigh!)

[karynnj]

24. It was in the first of the 2 links Prosense posted with the photo

the relevent part was:

"Stabenow has also been promised a prized seat on the Senate Finance Committee.

Democrats could have as many as three seats to fill on the panel. The retirement of Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.) has opened one Democratic-controlled slot, and two more may be open when Republican and Democratic leaders complete negotiations to change the partisan ratio of committee seats to reflect the new Democratic majority.

Centrist Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) are said to be interested in joining the panel, but they share that interest with many Democrats.

“I and half the Senate,” said Carper of lawmakers angling for the open seats. Carper said the assignments are likely to be made before the end of the week."

There comments definately match yours - the explanation of when Kerry joined explained why he is I think 4th. I've seen Baucaus and Conrad speak on these issues and they're great. Kerry was fantastic explaining the Alternative minimum tax and capital gains - I like Kerry's plank (in the 10) of valuing labor over wealth in taxation.

[TayTay]

25. That held up, that is a very difficult committee to get on

except for Schumer. (Motherf*cker. Long story.)

[ginnyinWI]

26. that pic makes me smile

The new majority on the job! :)

[Inuca]

29. Yep

me too. They look busy, serious (with a hint of "NOW we can get to work"), and kind of geeky (in a nice way, of course :-)).

[karynnj]

16. That always goes to the one with most senority

I think by definition. Strom Thurman had it when he was clearly not an active Senator.

[Mass]

27. Tentative Democratic Committee Assignments in Senate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2967290

[beachmom]

28. Cool -- Webb is on SFRC, Veterans, and Armed Svcs.

Webb will be a stellar replacement for Barfbag!!

[europegirl4jfk]

31. Casey is on SFRC too!

I can't wait to watch their hearings. That will be really interesting in the future.

[ginnyinWI]

32. night and day!! n/t

[TayTay]

33. Yeah! SFRC is going to be more serious

and interesting. Webb replaced Barfie, Casey replaces Chafee.

God is in her heaven and all is right with the world.

I am happy!

[wisteria]

34. I love the new addtions. How about Memendez? Was he on the

committee before?

[TayTay]

35. He's new.

Corzine was not in SFRC. (Senate Foreign Relations Committee.)

It's so nice to see serious and intelligent people there who actually can intelligently discuss the future of US Foreign policy. (And do so without football analogies. Sorry Sen. Barfie, Iraq is nothing like a late quarter run. At all. You moron.)

And Senator Kerry is 3rd ranking Dem on the Committee. Yeah!

[Inuca]

30. Boxer instead of...

... Inhofe in environment. That by itself speaks volumes.... WE WON!!!