Say, how do you suppose Hillary is feeling while everyone else is trading up Senate committee chairs and Holy Joe seems to be keeping his?

Everyone else cashes in, and Hillary gets nothing?

by Ken

Now this is an angle on the Holy Joe Problem I hadn't thought about.

Our pal Al Kamen, after breathlessly setting out the round of musical committee chairs preparing to spin in the Senate in the wake of Robert Byrd's stepping down from Appropriations and the elevation of Foreign Relations chair Joe Biden to the vice presidency (which I talked about yesterday), with seemingly every Democrat in the joint trading up or newly ascending to a chairmanship, and then noting the question mark hanging over Holy Joe Lieberman's continued tenure on Homeland Security, notes in today's Washington Post "In the Loop":

The fine irony, of course, would be if Lieberman, despite his apostasy, is allowed to keep his post -- and there's chatter he might cut a deal to forfeit only his Armed Services subcommittee chairmanship -- but Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), now heading a subcommittee in charge of cleaning up toxic waste sites, is, by seniority rules, left out.

So, let's see: She pretty much equaled Obama in the Democratic primary race, with nearly 18 million votes, but lost. She nonetheless was out there all over the battleground states -- even Nebraska -- rallying the troops for Obama. And she gets bupkes? Nada? Zip?

If the decision on Holy Joe is really being left to the caucus, and they're really too thick to grasp the dimension of the inappropriateness of leaving His Holiness in place, free to vent his contempt for the whole lot of them, then they're even lamer and more useless than we already suspected.

Is anyone surprised, though?


UPDATE: SO NOW HILLARY'S IN THE RUNNING FOR
SEC'Y OF STATE? STILL, I'M FOR KERRY BECAUSE --

Anyway, NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports that two Obama advisers have told her Hillary is one of the candidates being considered, along with other possibilities including John Kerry and Bill Richardson.

And good luck to Hillary. But I've got to come out four-square for John Kerry. Not so much because I think he was born to be secretary of state, though I think he's a worthy candidate for the job. But he gets my nod as part of a two-for-one deal: If Kerry gets the nod, it appears more or less certain that Russ Feingold takes over as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. (Yay!)

Yesterday, you'll recall, we were speculating about the possibility that someone or something might block Russ's claim on the Foreign Relations chair, on the ground that he's too liberal. It's been called to my attention, though, that Harry Reid is already on record otherwise. Well, maybe not "on record," exactly, but he has been spoken for. Friday evening Ryan Grim reported on Politico's The Crypt blog:

Feingold 'absolutely' in line for Foreign Relations Committee chair

There's been chatter in the Senate today -- and not least of all in Politico -- that Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) may be considered too liberal to be allowed to take the helm of the Foreign Relations Committee were Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) to be named Secretary of State.

The chatter is wrong. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will "absolutely" follow the regular order of seniority with regard to the committee, said Reid spokesman Jim Manley. Feingold, behind Kerry, would be next in line for the gavel.

On Rachel Maddow's show Sen. Amy Klobuchar just said she sort of thinks the Hillary report is just one of those stories that gets floated at times like this. I'm inclined to think that's the case too, but I also understand Rachel's ongoing puzzlement that the Obama team, which was so close to leakproof throughout the campaign, now seems to be leaking like a sieve. What's up with that?


FINAL UPDATE: LET'S RECAP THAT ROUND OF SENATE
COMMITTEE MUSICAL CHAIRS (TAKE A DEEP BREATH)

APPROPRIATIONS

Senator Byrd, in poor health as he approaches his 91st birthday, is expected to be replaced by "a relative youngster," as Al Kamen puts it, Hawaii's 84-year-old Daniel Inouye, who will give up Commerce, Science and Transportation.

COMMERCE, SCIENCE AND TRANSPORTATION

Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia is expected to replace Inouye, giving up the chair of the Select Committee on Intelligence.

SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE

Replacing Rockefeller is expected to be California's Dianne Feinstein, who would give up the chair of Rules and Administration.

RULES AND ADMINISTRATION

"That may mean," as Al puts it, with all the more senior candidates otherwise committed, "that Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) could vault an extraordinary six slots and take over the rules panel." Yuck!

And farther down the line:
HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR AND PENSIONS

At some point the question has to be faced as to whether that lion of the Senate, current chair Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, remains up to the job. "The muted speculation," says Al, "is that Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) would take over for his close friend and mentor." Apparently for that slot, if and when it comes, unlike the immediate Foreign Relations opening, Senator Dodd is prepared to give up the Banking chair, where still-recovering Tim Johnston of South Dakota is next in line.

And, oh yes --
HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

If Holy Joe does go (not that we're holding our breath), next in line is Hawaii's other senator, Daniel Akaka, who would move over from VETERANS AFFAIRS, where he would be replaced by Washington's Patty Murray.

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