A day before House Democrats are expected to vote current Majority Whip Jim Clyburn into a newly-created position in the leadership of their new minority, no one can really say what the new job will entail.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi — expected to be elected Minority Leader in the next Congress at tomorrow’s Democratic Caucus meeting — averted a potentially nasty leadership fight between Clyburn and currently Majority Leader Steny Hoyer over the number two slot in the minority by creating a new number three job called “Assistant Leader” in the next Congress. Hoyer is expected to be elected the Democrats’ number two — also known as Minority Whip — and Clyburn the caucus’ Assistant Leader.
A Democratic caucus aide said today that the Assistant Leader slot will be created by renaming the current Assistant To The Leader position when the caucus meets tomorrow. The current job is occupied by Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who is not expected to challenge Clyburn’s bid for the position.
What does an Assistant Leader do? No one really knows. The aide wasn’t able to comment on the specifics of the job, and so far Pelosi hasn’t offered any more details on it, either.
The lack of details on the slot made for Clyburn one day before Democrats are scheduled to give it to him is proving to be something of a problem for Pelosi. As the Washington Post‘s Krissah Thompson reports, Clyburn’s allies in the Congressional Black Caucus are upset by the lack of specifics and are threatening not to back the deal until they learn more.
