The majority shuffle - Changes sweeping Congress could decrease Ohio's clout, and should mean ...

[helderheid]

an increase in vital work for Ohio's Dems

Sunday, November 12, 2006

For the last dozen years, whenever Ohio wanted something from Washington, it knew whom to see for results. Republican Reps. Ralph Regula of Navarre, David Hobson of Springfield and Steve LaTourette of Concord Township had seats on the Appropriations and Transportation committees, panels whose majority-party members wield great influence in distributing serious money. In the Senate, Republican Mike DeWine was starting to exercise some purse-string power as well.

Then came last Tuesday, when America fired the feckless GOP majority and turned Congress over to the Democrats. Come January, DeWine will be gone; Regula, Hobson and LaTourette still will have seats on influential committees, but as members of the minority party, their clout will be considerably diminished.

In their places will rise - we fervently hope - some Ohio Democrats who for years have occupied the back benches and dimmed corners of power and policy-making. They include Cleveland's two veteran representatives, Dennis Kucinich and Stephanie Tubbs Jones; Tim Ryan of the Mahoning Valley; and Marcie Kaptur of Toledo. With them will be Zack Space, the freshman who won the East-Central 18th District so disgraced by resigned felon Bob Ney; and Betty Sutton, heir to the 13th District seat vacated by Sen.-elect Sherrod Brown.

These newly minted majoritarians have plenty to do in the coming two years to demonstrate that their ascensions have been worth the wait. Each should be suitably placed to prove his or her worth.

Kucinich may well chair a Government Reform subcommittee that will put the national security and foreign relations efforts of the Bush administration under a critical microscope. Tubbs Jones is positioned to chair a subcommittee of the Ways & Means Committee, whose control over taxes, Social Security and Medicare makes it one of the chamber's most powerful bodies. It is not yet known where Brown will land in the Senate, but given his potential, odds are his posting will be visible.

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http://www.cleveland.com/politics/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/opinion/116323867042800.xml&coll=2

[Rowdyboy]

1. If Kucinich winds up chairingg a govt reform subcommittee on nat'l security,

then this election will have ENORMOUS, unexpected benefits.

[helderheid]

2. Enormous is putting it lightly!! :)