Big Fight for Open Slot on the Senate Finance Committee

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Speaking of Jim DeMint, he is no ordinary backbencher. He is a conservative firebrand who is causing minority leader Mitch McConnell no end of headaches. He constantly attacks earmarks--including those benefitting Republicans--and is now demanding a seat on the powerful Senate finance committee, which writes the tax laws. Two Republican slots are open due to the defeat of two Republican members, Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR) and Sen. John Sununu (R-NH), but due to the shift in the partisan composition of the Senate, the Republicans will be able to keep only one of them. If McConnell were to give DeMint a seat, he would have to skip over two other Republicans, Sen. Michael Enzi (R-WY) and Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH), both of whom have more seniority than DeMint. The argument that DeMint is making is that the seniority system is broken and should be ditched. He says that appointments should be made on merit.

The last thing the leader of a small minority, with 41 or 42 seats needs, is an intraparty revolt. Remember that to get 41 votes to invoke cloture, he has very little margin for error. And if Al Franken wins in Minnesota, he has no margin of error at all. Imagine that Franken wins, which is probably 50-50 at this point, then the first time a cloture vote comes up, DeMint could say: "Either you put me on the finance committee or I am voting for cloture." Needless to say, the new finance committee member, either Enzi or Voinovich, would balk and threaten to vote against cloture if removed from the committee. McConnell will have his hands full if Franken wins because then every Republican in the Senate gets a veto over everything by just threatening to side with the Democrats. And, of course, the majority leader, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), will do everything in his (considerable) power to create more dissension in the Republican ranks, as in: "Jim, how many more dams would you like for South Carolina?"

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