First, it gives us a window into the process by which Democrats decide their committee chairs, and second in tells us something about the priorities of the incoming Congress.
Politico tells us:
In a secret ballot vote in the Cannon Caucus Room, House Democrats ratified an earlier decision by the Steering and Policy Committee to replace the 82-year-old Dingell with his 69-year-old rival. The vote was 137-122 in favor of Waxman.
The ascension of Waxman, a wily environmentalist, recasts a committee that Dingell has chaired since 1981 with an eye toward protecting the domestic auto industry in his native Michigan. The Energy and Commerce Committee has principal jurisdiction over many of President-elect Barack Obama's top legislative priorities, including energy, the environment and health care.
"Seniority is important, but it should not be a grant of property rights to be chairman for three decades or more,” Waxman said after emerging from the caucus meeting. Waxman’s win is a big victory for environmentalists who want a more aggressive stance on global warming from the committee, and the vote showed the powerful hand of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Waxman ally, even though she officially remained neutral in the race.
The ousting of the ultimate Old Bull — just three months before Dingell was set to become the longest-serving chairman in the House — is also a shot across the bow for other senior lawmakers who have enjoyed a comfortable and unchallenged ride in their chairmen’s seats.
In other words, the current Democratic majority feels confident enough to shake up things in its own caucus to make changes in policy that it otherwise could not. The key, according to Politico, was the newly elected freshmen who supported Waxman's environmentalism over Dingell's support for the auto industry.
More comments:
- Slate calls it a gift for Obama.
- Kate Shepard anticipates increased support for climate policy.
- Huffington Post argues that energy policy will now be more "California" than "Michigan."
