No likely-to-bolt and approve Alito Part 2 Dems on there.

Whitehouse and Cardin both added.  Good stuff.  Leahy as chair - outstanding.

Hmm, that could be trouble if people voted for him for that reason.

Wasn't Tester promised a seat on Appropriations by Reid. That would be bad promise to break unless they plan on doing the switch 2 years before Tester's reelection.

That HELP (health education labor and pensions) committee looks like fun to me. Kennedy as chair, with Clinton and Obama both running for president and Brown and Sanders as perhaps the most worker focused of the new senators. I could see a real health care plan or significant pension reform coming out of there, if the national winds blow the right way.

Hell, if LIeberman is going to retain his seniority on a committee which reflects the worst of his blunders, maybe Sanders could threaten his support for the caucus and make it a free for all. Probably makes the establishemtn think twice before making such promises.

When do we hear about the republican choices for committees and for leadership positions?

Isn't he, like, the ONLY farmer in the Senate?

Having two senators from the same party on a committee is unusual at best.  It's pure overrepresentation at worst.

Committee assignments will change again in two years, and if Democrats pick up a number of GOP seats we have more freshmen, and more committee seats.

Reid promised Tester a spot on Appropriations "as soon as possible."  Recognize that much of the committee placement is based on seniority, and the way seniority is determined when everyone is elected on the same night depends on when the polls close in a particular state.

Therefore, if polls close at 7pm EST in Ohio, and 8pm EST in Missouri, then the senator from Ohio technically has more seniority because voters are still casting ballots in Missouri when the Ohio polls are closed.  Therefore the race isn't yet decided.

BTW, freshmen never get appropriations.  Lautenburg and Nelson (NE) are the two most junior members.  Frank will be retring so that makes on Dem opening; Byrd and Inoye are ancient and anything can happen to them in the next few years; Leahy is happy at Judiciary.

Can I just say holy shit? What a wonderful turnaround from the Inhofe-era dark ages!

Environment Public Works
CHAIR:  Boxer
Baucus
Lieberman
Carper
Clinton
Lautenberg
Cardin
Sanders
Klobuchar
Whitehouse

hows Klobuchar on the environment?

Great use of Webb, btw. Put him on all foreign policy, military committees. It gives Democrats even more legitimacy when sounding off against Iraq.

If Democrats increse their number of seats, as expected, after 2008, then there will be additional space on the appropriations comittee for him.  As others have noted, a Lautenberg retirement would also open up a slot.

It is alright for, perhaps, two senators of the same state to be on a committee like the Judiciary because Judiciary policy is usually not state-specific.  It's more ideological.  Agriculture, however, has major ramifications for the regional bias in the distribution of pork & agricultural policymaking.

Can someone explain how seniority works? Is a freshman in the majority more senior than a freshman in the minority? What about two senators elected at the same time in the same party? How do they decide who's most senior? Is it the size of the state or something weird like that? Or do they draw for it?

Seniority in the Senate overall is based on when the dates they are sworn in - not as someone above said it was the polls closing.  So unless a Senator is filling a vacancy all of the senators elected in the same year have the same seniority.  On the committee level it is based on the years that they were on that committee.  I believe a tie breaker would be overall seniority.  However, it is not really important when you get down to the least 'seniors' - remember you can only chair one committee so the next senior person becomes the chair.  The seniorty generally follows to the subcommittes as well - but given the size difference this is more important on the house side where sub committee chair can wield great influence.  

hope that helps.  

Inouye as chair of Commerce should bode well for net neutrality. I think he proposed the net neutrality amendment.

Akaka on Energy should be interested. He promised during the campaign to revisit his ANWR stance.

Where's this info coming from, by the way?

This setup does a great job for net neutrality but if we want a manhattan project for new energy sources we'd better be careful. some of these look a bit odd.

for example lieberman on environment and public works comitee - that to me looks like the fox guarding the henhouse.

also lieberman on small business? don't get it. someone who supports the bush administration is for big business, not small business.

The full name of the committee:

The U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

What on earth is Tester doing on this committee? Is there any way to make his service here productive for the people of Montana?

I'm also wondering the source of this list?