I am somewhat stunned that Sen. Patrick Leahy has turned down an opportunity to chair the Appropriations Committee. I was under the impression that he was highly covetous of the job. He will remain the chair of the Judiciary Committee, which means that there won’t be a major of reshuffling of committee chairs. It will be Sen. Barbara Mikulski who takes over Appropriations, instead. I remember reading somewhere a few years ago that Sen. Mikulski has served longer than any senator in history without having the honor of chairing a full committee. I don’t know if it’s true that she’s waited the longest ever, but it was probably worth the wait. She’s scrappy, so it should be interesting.
This means that Leahy will still be the one holding hearings on our gun laws. I thought it would be Sen. Diane Feinstein, which would have been very interesting because she sponsored the original Assault Weapons Ban in the mid-1990’s. But she will now keep her chair on Intelligence.
I wonder if the Pres. and Senator Reid asked Leahy to stay on the Judiciary Committee to shepherd any SCOTUS nominees through confirmation. Having an experienced chair there could be decisive.
This makes sense to me.
Leahy seems to be genuinely more interested in judicial and law enforcement issues than in appropriations.
He also doesn’t strike me as someone who is quite so monomaniacally obsessed with his place on the totem pole, at least not compared to his colleagues in the Senate.
If you were 72, Booman, you wouldn’t be. I am 72. One doesn’t think much about taking on new jobs at 72.
Inouye was 88. Just saying’. Vermonters must be disappointed.