Nice breakdown of who will replace Kennedy as chairman of his old committee

[LynneSin]

http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2009/Senate/Maps/Aug28-s.html#1

Kennedy's Death Leaves HELP Committee Chairmanship Vacant Permalink
Ted Kennedy's death creates a vacancy at the top of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee, which he previously chaired. Next in line is Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT). However, to take this chairmanship, Dodd would have to resign as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. So he has to choose which committee he wants to run.

His choice is complicated by his own electoral predicament. His approval rating in Connecticut has fallen in recent months due to a widespread perception that he hasn't come down very hard on the bankers who caused the economic crisis, and has done nothing to reign in outlandlish salaries. Many people feel that having the taxpayers give hundreds of billions of dollars to the banks and then have them spend billions to give bonuses to the bozos whose incompetence caused the crisis is intolerable. It is one thing to lavishly reward successful executives for outstanding performance but something else to reward them equally well with taxpayers' money for abject failure. As a consequence of Dodd's lack of action, he is facing his first serious election challenge in 2010, possibly from former representative Rob Simmons (R), although Simmons will face several primary opponents. And Dodd has been in the news for getting a sweetheart deal on a mortgage from a company his committee oversees, although the Ethics Committee has cleared him of any wrongdoing. In addition, Dodd has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

As a result of all this, Dodd may prefer running the HELP committee, which will allow him to take credit for a successful health insurance reform bill although he will have to butt heads with Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which is drawing up its own bill. Dodd is fairly liberal and Baucus is fairly conservative so it would be a bad start for Dodd to lose his first fight as HELP chairman.

If Dodd indeed chooses for HELP, Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) is next in line to chair the Banking committee. However, Johnson suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in Dec. 2006 and may not feel up to the job of taking on the banking industry. If he wants the job, majority leader Harry Reid said he can have it. However, if Johnson declines, next is line is Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), one of the most liberal members of the Senate and someone who might well take on the banking industry.

Of course, Dodd also has the option of staying put at the Banking committee. If he does that, then next in line at HELP is Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA). But to accept that chairmanship, Harkin would have to give up his chairmanship of the Agriculture Committee, something he would be hesitant to do given the importance of agriculture in his home state of Iowa. If he passes, the new HELP chairman would be Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), a feisty liberal from Maryland. So depending on what Dodd, Johnson, and Harkin do, we could have quite a different lineup in the Senate shortly.

[livetohike]

1. I hope Sen. Mikulski ends up with it

She has a lot of passion :-).

[Barack_America]

2. I have my preferences...

...but I'm going to wait a bit to think about this.