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Thursday, November 20, 2008
The Waxman-Dingell battle
A battle going on now that few people have been paying attention to is the challenge of Henry Waxman to take control of the House Energy and Commerce Committee away from Michigan's John Dingell. Although, Nancy Pelosi is reportedly neutral in this battle, the House Steering Committee which is, as Steve Kornacki points out, stacked with her supporters, voted 25 to 22 in the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee in support of Waxman.
If Waxman wins, we can expect much more aggressive efforts in favor of green policies and more regulation of the auto industry, something that Dingell has been stalwart in trying to stop.
What is so interesting about this is how rare it is for there to be a battle over committee chairmanships. The Republicans weathered a few such battles when they took control in 1995. But in general, the seniority system determines who will be in control. It is in every long-serving congressman's interest to support the system since they expect to get their own benefits and don't want to face challenges within their own fiefdoms. The quintessential example of this was when the quite liberal senator Lowell Weicker voted against Richard Lugar and in support of Jesse Helms to chair the Senate Foreign Relations committee because Weicker wanted to uphold the seniority system which was protecting his own chairmanship of the Small Business Committee against the attacks of conservative Republicans.
If Waxman emerges victorious when the contest is put up to a vote in the entire caucus, we will have seen a true new day in the House. It will be a sign of Pelosi's power. Even though she is pretending to be neutral, does anyone think that Waxman, an ally of hers, would have made this move without her blessing?
Kornacki points out that one of Dingell's sources of strength is the Black Congressional Caucus. Due to their gerrymandered districts, a lot of them have been around long enough that they have built up quite a bit of seniority and thus power. They have shown in the past that they are willing to stand up to Pelosi in order to protect their own such as when they supported Alcee Hastings to be chairman of the House Intelligence Committee despite his past as an federal judge impeached and thrown off the bench.
I hold no particular brief for the seniority system, and think that actually it would be better if Congress were more of a meritocracy than a system based on whoever has been around the longest. But the economy could weather Dingell's continued chairmanship better than Waxman's. So I'm pulling for Dingell, but also cheered by the thought that we could see some cracks put into a system that was so critical to maintaining a southern blockade of civil rights legislation for so long in both houses of Congress.Labels: Congress
5 comments
A battle going on now that few people have been paying attention to is the challenge of Henry Waxman to take control of the House Energy and Commerce Committee away from Michigan's John Dingell. Although, Nancy Pelosi is reportedly neutral in this battle, the House Steering Committee which is, as Steve Kornacki points out, stacked with her supporters, voted 25 to 22 in the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee in support of Waxman.
If Waxman wins, we can expect much more aggressive efforts in favor of green policies and more regulation of the auto industry, something that Dingell has been stalwart in trying to stop.
What is so interesting about this is how rare it is for there to be a battle over committee chairmanships. The Republicans weathered a few such battles when they took control in 1995. But in general, the seniority system determines who will be in control. It is in every long-serving congressman's interest to support the system since they expect to get their own benefits and don't want to face challenges within their own fiefdoms. The quintessential example of this was when the quite liberal senator Lowell Weicker voted against Richard Lugar and in support of Jesse Helms to chair the Senate Foreign Relations committee because Weicker wanted to uphold the seniority system which was protecting his own chairmanship of the Small Business Committee against the attacks of conservative Republicans.
If Waxman emerges victorious when the contest is put up to a vote in the entire caucus, we will have seen a true new day in the House. It will be a sign of Pelosi's power. Even though she is pretending to be neutral, does anyone think that Waxman, an ally of hers, would have made this move without her blessing?
Kornacki points out that one of Dingell's sources of strength is the Black Congressional Caucus. Due to their gerrymandered districts, a lot of them have been around long enough that they have built up quite a bit of seniority and thus power. They have shown in the past that they are willing to stand up to Pelosi in order to protect their own such as when they supported Alcee Hastings to be chairman of the House Intelligence Committee despite his past as an federal judge impeached and thrown off the bench.
I hold no particular brief for the seniority system, and think that actually it would be better if Congress were more of a meritocracy than a system based on whoever has been around the longest. But the economy could weather Dingell's continued chairmanship better than Waxman's. So I'm pulling for Dingell, but also cheered by the thought that we could see some cracks put into a system that was so critical to maintaining a southern blockade of civil rights legislation for so long in both houses of Congress.
Labels: Congress
Some of these old "warriors" (yes, I use the term with apologies to our fine military) have a few too many "battle" scars.
Merit, however, is oh so very subjective and would also deteriorate into political back-stabbing/war games.
Merit, cause you always vote with the party, or merit, cause you have the expertise ? ? ? Who decides YOU have the expertise?
I understand and agree with your point, Betsy, but nothing is ever easy in Washington, is it?
But this setback only soldified his desire to be able to drive around in a car so beautiful that what the driver looked like was irrelevant. However the automakers in the 60's and currently cannot work miracles and young Henry met his future wife at a Ralph Nader training meeting while eating tofu with Bulgarian cracked wheat dip on bagels.
So as the potential chairman of this new committee he has already subtly and not so subtly let the manufacturers know that he expects future cars to emit no more pollutants than the Garden of Eden or that they produce a car that the currently old Henry Waxman can cruise by La Salsa or the parking lot at the Apple Pan and try to pick up some of the pre-law girls.
When one of the designers heard this he was heard muttering to himself that he wasn't Harley Earle and maybe working for Nike wasn't such a bad idea after all.
