can I just say...
That I find the backstabbing among Senate Democrats fascinating?
Now, I don't think Arlen Specter expected to be acclaimed as a triumphing hero once he switched parties, and anyone who thinks that is naive; he's too shrewd an operator for that, and I think he fully realized that not all on the Democratic side of the aisle would be particularly pleased when he came over. He immediately became eighth in seniority among Senate Democrats, and that was calculated to upset the apple cart of the fifty-odd Democrats who suddenly dropped a point in seniority, in a chamber where seniority is basically everything. Senators as a rule are almost childishly jealous of their privileges and perceived status (so much higher than those mere politicians in the House!). My personal belief is that, their own opinions to the contrary, latter-day legislators in that hallowed upper chamber don't hold a candle to the luminaries who went before them; Henry Cabot Lodge and Lyndon Johnson could have eaten them for breakfast.
However, I really don't think Specter expected his new party to stab him in the nuts and drop him to very last place in every committee he sits on. I am wondering, although I have no evidence, if old Harry Reid is doing this as an extremely belated "screw you!" for 2001's little affiliation-switch episode; when Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party to become an independent who caucused with the Democrats, then-Majority Leader Tom Daschle awarded him a committee chairmanship, a chairmanship that would otherwise have gone to Reid on the basis of seniority. Chairmanships are as ravenously coveted and jealously defended as any other privilege of rank. Reid is, by most accounts, not exactly the most sober of personalities, and I fully believe him capable of harboring such a grudge, although taking it out on Specter (who had nothing to do with Jeffords getting the chairmanship in 2001) would be little short of moronic. But, since Reid didn't act alone in assigning the committee seats, it's more likely that this was a communal decision.
Some have postulated that the reason could be Specter's recent comments about the Al Franken/Norm Coleman electoral debacle in Minnesota; Specter basically said that Franken's being awarded the seat would be "unjust." This was not something calculated to please a party that is positively salivating over the prospect of a 60-seat, possibly filibuster-proof majority, for which a Franken victory is necessary. I think the Franken argument is plausible.
At any rate, watching this is a gleeful experience for me. To have Almighty Senators, fancying themselves the Conscience of the Nation, a last bastion of dignity and gravity in an uncouth world, be revealed (yet again) as the bickering, petty, downright adolescent schoolchildren they really are, makes me grin like a fool.
Keep at it, guys. Why watch dross like American Idol, when I can watch the reality show of American politics? Of course, some might object and be outraged that all these shenanigans are going on while important business is afoot, but, you know, it's always been like this. In the end, I'd much rather watch these schoolyard antics than have them do the important business of propping up Wall Street and putting us into horrendous debt for the rest of my life.
Now, I don't think Arlen Specter expected to be acclaimed as a triumphing hero once he switched parties, and anyone who thinks that is naive; he's too shrewd an operator for that, and I think he fully realized that not all on the Democratic side of the aisle would be particularly pleased when he came over. He immediately became eighth in seniority among Senate Democrats, and that was calculated to upset the apple cart of the fifty-odd Democrats who suddenly dropped a point in seniority, in a chamber where seniority is basically everything. Senators as a rule are almost childishly jealous of their privileges and perceived status (so much higher than those mere politicians in the House!). My personal belief is that, their own opinions to the contrary, latter-day legislators in that hallowed upper chamber don't hold a candle to the luminaries who went before them; Henry Cabot Lodge and Lyndon Johnson could have eaten them for breakfast.
However, I really don't think Specter expected his new party to stab him in the nuts and drop him to very last place in every committee he sits on. I am wondering, although I have no evidence, if old Harry Reid is doing this as an extremely belated "screw you!" for 2001's little affiliation-switch episode; when Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party to become an independent who caucused with the Democrats, then-Majority Leader Tom Daschle awarded him a committee chairmanship, a chairmanship that would otherwise have gone to Reid on the basis of seniority. Chairmanships are as ravenously coveted and jealously defended as any other privilege of rank. Reid is, by most accounts, not exactly the most sober of personalities, and I fully believe him capable of harboring such a grudge, although taking it out on Specter (who had nothing to do with Jeffords getting the chairmanship in 2001) would be little short of moronic. But, since Reid didn't act alone in assigning the committee seats, it's more likely that this was a communal decision.
Some have postulated that the reason could be Specter's recent comments about the Al Franken/Norm Coleman electoral debacle in Minnesota; Specter basically said that Franken's being awarded the seat would be "unjust." This was not something calculated to please a party that is positively salivating over the prospect of a 60-seat, possibly filibuster-proof majority, for which a Franken victory is necessary. I think the Franken argument is plausible.
At any rate, watching this is a gleeful experience for me. To have Almighty Senators, fancying themselves the Conscience of the Nation, a last bastion of dignity and gravity in an uncouth world, be revealed (yet again) as the bickering, petty, downright adolescent schoolchildren they really are, makes me grin like a fool.
Keep at it, guys. Why watch dross like American Idol, when I can watch the reality show of American politics? Of course, some might object and be outraged that all these shenanigans are going on while important business is afoot, but, you know, it's always been like this. In the end, I'd much rather watch these schoolyard antics than have them do the important business of propping up Wall Street and putting us into horrendous debt for the rest of my life.