mildy surpised (4.00 / 2)

Seems good overall.  I didn't think Harkin would move.

New Jersey politics at Blue Jersey.

---

by: Hopeful in NJ @ Wed Sep 09, 2009 at 03:55:02 AM UTC

Agreed (4.00 / 1)

In fact, this seems like the best possible outcome, given the constraints.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

---

by: Paul Rosenberg @ Wed Sep 09, 2009 at 05:05:27 AM UTC

This is a great outcome (4.00 / 1)

much better than I expected. Dodd will certainly be better than Johnson on Banking (not to mention that he will be a full-time chair). Harkin is a solid progressive at HELP (I've always wished he had been a national figure). And BL can use her new perch at AG to bring home the bacon in time for the election...and if she loses, well then that's one less mod Dem. I wonder who the second ranking Dem on the Ag committee is...  

---

by: glacierpeaks @ Wed Sep 09, 2009 at 05:39:40 AM UTC

Looks like Debbie Stabenow (0.00 / 0)

Next after her is Ben Nelson!

---

by: Books Alive @ Wed Sep 09, 2009 at 12:36:45 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Assuming (0.00 / 0)

Cool.  If Lincoln loses, I wouldn't mind my Senator becoming the Ag Chairman in the next session.

That is assuming that the other three more senior members choose to remain chairmen of their respective committees
Leahy (Judiciary)
Conrad (Budget)
Baucus (Finance)

Which is a safe bet as long as it's up to those Senators.

Our Dime Understanding the U.S. Budget

---

by: dmineau @ Wed Sep 09, 2009 at 15:01:53 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Stabenow is DLC... (0.00 / 0)

...as is Nelson.

---

by: nasrudin @ Wed Sep 09, 2009 at 15:58:32 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

BTW: I should add (0.00 / 0)

that this is a beautiful site, made possible in part by you and me:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32...

---

by: glacierpeaks @ Wed Sep 09, 2009 at 05:50:51 AM UTC

Sight not site (0.00 / 0)

---

by: glacierpeaks @ Wed Sep 09, 2009 at 05:51:47 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I find it hard to cheer news of... (0.00 / 0)

another DLCer (Lincoln) getting a Chair, or to celebrate a supporter of repealing Glass-Steagall remaining head of Banking.

At least Harkin was one of 7 Senate Dems who voted against that Clinton-Summers-Rubin et al monstrosity. (The others were Boxer, Bryan, Dorgan, Feingold, Mikulski and Wellstone.)  

---

by: nasrudin @ Wed Sep 09, 2009 at 06:25:13 AM UTC

Why so glum? (0.00 / 0)

Centrist Dems, as we all know, care deeply about fighting the deficit, so Lincoln is surely just the person to take on all those big destructive ag subsidies.

Surely.

---

by: Chachy @ Wed Sep 09, 2009 at 14:25:28 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I'm not glum -- mostly cheerful, in fact. (0.00 / 0)

Just because I don't cheer about the machinations of either faction of the Wall Street Party doesn't mean there isn't plenty in life to enjoy.

"Surely."

No doubt! With fellow DLCer Governor Monsanto -- uh, I mean, Ag Secretary Vilsack -- installed by Obama, "progressive" reform is surely in the pipeline!

(As in "Progressive (sic) Policy Institute" -- with the name as accurate as the fascist Zhirinovsky's "Liberal Democratic Party" in Russia...or for that matter, the "Democratic Party" in the USA.)

---

by: nasrudin @ Wed Sep 09, 2009 at 16:09:04 PM UTC

[ Parent ]