Senate Democrats rewarded Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) yesterday for his success as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) by giving him a specially created leadership position.
In return for the new title of vice chairman of the caucus, which ranks third among Democratic leaders, Schumer has agreed to serve another two years as chairman of the Senate Democratic fundraising committee.
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) announced after a closed-door meeting of the Democratic caucus yesterday that Democrats had created the new position, which puts Schumer below only Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the incoming majority whip, and Reid, but means he outranks the Democratic conference secretary. Read on...
Creating a position for Schumer is all fine and good, I guess. I'm not sure that he deserves that much credit for the election turnout. However, the part of the story that has the media all agog is this little tidbit:
Stabenow will replace Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who will assume a new minor position as vice chair of committee outreach. There, she will assist Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), chairman of committee outreach, in providing "a voice in the Democratic leadership for committee chairs. Clinton's appointment is curious because she, unlike Bingaman, will not chair a committee in the next Congress.
Hillary is downgrading her leadership position, ostensibly to make time for her own presidential explorations. Let the media speculation commence!
