Change comes to Congress

Forget Lieberman, for the moment. While his holding onto the chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee is likely to be a thorny issue going forward, it's not the only thing going on in Congress at the moment, so let's talk about some of those other things.

House: Energy & Commerce
The biggest change, so far, is Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) beating out Rep. John Dingall (D-MI) for the top spot on the House Energy & Commerce committee. Yes, they're both Democrats who've been in Congress for forever, but they're very, very different people. As Chairman of the House Energy & Commerce committee, the prehistoric fossil Dingall, representing his constituency of automakers, has fought attempts to promote more efficient vehicles, cleaner burning fuels, restrictions on air pollution... basically, anything that would be good for the country and the world but might inconvenience the automakers (or force them into facing the reality of the auto market). Waxman, on the other hand, well, he's one of my favorite politicians (but I'm a little biased, since he represents the district adjacent to mine). As the chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, he's one of two serious thorns in Bush's side since January of 2007 (the other being House Judicial Chairman John Conyers), and though he can't unilaterally force Congress to take action against Bush, he's the one whose subpoenas they've been avoiding, and he's the one they've been going to court with to avoid having to be held accountable for anything. He's also been one of Dingall's rivals in environmental and air quality initiatives.

What does this mean for Congress and Obama's agenda? Fewer internal obstacles in the Democratic Party. This is, unquestionably, a huge win for progressives.

Senate: What happens to Clinton's seat?
Clinton has reportedly been offered and accepted the role of Secretary of State in Barack Obama's Cabinet. So what happens to her seat in the Senate? In short, NY Governor David Paterson gets to pick her replacement. Speculation on who will get that appointment is already in high gear.



Stay tuned, there's more shuffling afoot for the coming 111th Congress.



Bean mostly wanted to celebrate Waxman's win and point out that while Lieberman shows the Senate establishment alive and well, Waxman proves the left's gains this November are real and will have real consequences for the Democratic establishment, but also wanted a place to post about interesting goings-on in Congress that didn't warrant their own thread.

A Congress without Dingellsaurus shaping environmental and energy policy is a very good thing. I cheered (silently, inside my head) when I read this news.