| Reid must stack the committee.
The current membership has 9 Democrats and 8 Republicans. This has meant that even if the Democrats wanted to gang up and out-vote Lieberman on some matter, they would probably lose since the Republicans would side with Lieberman.
However, now that a pile of extra Democrats are joining the Senate, the make up of the committee will change. In the 109th Senate, with 55 Republicans, this committee had a 2 vote lead for the majority: 9-7. There will be enough Democrats to vote down the chair on key matters (I'm hopeful for a 3 vote advantage, but I don't know precisely how that kind of thing is calculated).
Further, the membership is already due to change somewhat, since from the 110th congress, it includes several defeated Republicans, plus one non-returning Democrat, a "Barack Obama" character who I think resigned for some reason. Anyway, Reid needs to be smart about who he puts on this committee. He seemed to have done so with the Judiciary committee in the 110th, which was able to accomplish some good without constant fear of its membership bolting to vote with the GOP. Feinstein was the only weak point, and she did in fact bolt on the Southwick nomination.
It looks to me like Lieberman's committee was stacked with his allies (which Obama was at the start of the 110th). Too many unreliable votes here - Landrieu and Pryor in particular. This committee may need a coup d'etat to overrule its chair. In the days of near-invincible committee chairs, they used to be able to block all sorts of legislation they didn't like, including things like civil rights legislation.
This committee's jurisdiction is not so grandiose, but I daresay Lieberman will be able to exert considerable influence by the implied threat of bottling up legislation or nominees in his purview. Which is certainly a large part of why he fought so hard to keep this particular chair.
The Committee Democrats need to alter the rules to check Lieberman's subpoena power
Congressional committees create their own rules which control the specific powers of the chair, how testimony is taken, when a transcript is kept and vitally, who can issue subpoenas and how. For most committees, subpoenas require a vote from the committee, which usually means the majority members must consent. However, for this committee, and its House counterpart (previously chaired by Waxman) the Chair has enhanced powers as per the rules (pp12-13):
C. Full Committee subpoenas. The Chairman, with the approval of the Ranking Minority Member of the Committee, is authorized to subpoena the attendance of witnesses or the production of memoranda, documents, records, or any other materials at a hearing or deposition, [...] If a subpoena is disapproved by the Ranking Minority Member as provided in this subsection, the subpoena may be authorized by vote of the
Members of the Committee. When the Committee or Chairman authorizes subpoenas, subpoenas may be issued upon the signature of the Chairman or any other Member of the Committee designated by the Chairman.
This is slightly more stringent than the House version, where the chair can issue subpoenas solo, probably due to the clubby nature of the senate and the generally enhanced powers the minority maintains. I'm sure when this rule was created, it was just a nice sop to the Ranking Member, that s/he could pair up with the Chair and issue subpoenas without consulting the remainder of the committee. Naturally for anything partisan such cooperation would not likely happen, so the majority can simply vote out a subpoena if need be. But here, this rule plays right into Lieberman's hands and allows him to subpoena witnesses with only the approval of the GOP ranking member (Collins). I wonder why Lieberman campaigned for her?
I didn't study all of the rules in depth, but this part needs to change. The other Democrats need a veto on his subpoenas. There are probably other tweaks needed to limit Lieberman's ability to insert poison-pills into legislation or unduly delay key priorities.
I don't know if any of this happening is plausible, but Reid is said to be a parliamentarian master. It would be a smart move. Lieberman will not bolt the caucus over this stuff, it's inside baseball he would look really petulant if he did. Reid could essentially make Lieberman toothless (or at least knock out a few teeth). He would get his precious gavel and prime parking space, and some extra staff, but all with a leash. Otherwise he is effectively handing the Republicans effective control over a key committee. |
