The fiercest old bulls who roamed the House when Nancy Pelosi came to power will be gone by the beginning of next year — replaced by new bulls who more clearly owe their positions to the powerful speaker.
At the beginning of this Congress, Pelosi ally Henry Waxman ousted House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell.
Sander Levin got the Ways and Means Committee chairmanship earlier this year after Charles Rangel gave it up under an ethics cloud — the result in part of Pelosi’s maneuvering to avoid an all-out mid-session race for the prestigious post.
Norm Dicks took over the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee after the death of John Murtha in February, and now he’s poised to take control of the Appropriations Committee after Dave Obey retires at the end of this term.
While Dingell, Rangel, Murtha and Obey were powerful House veterans long before Pelosi picked up the speaker’s gavel, each of the new bulls will owe his rise in part to the speaker’s good graces — and, in some cases, her political muscle.
It amounts to a subtle but striking natural consolidation of authority for a speaker who by any measure already wields historic levels of institutional and personal power within Congress.
Pelosi’s power is enhanced by her role in picking the new chairmen — with their ascent dependent upon her assent — and by the departure of veteran lawmakers who came to power before she did. - Politico Story
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