Rep. Henry Waxman (D) has ousted John Dingell (D) as Chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
That’s a hugely big deal on any number of levels — not least of which is the two men’s very different positions on energy policy. We’ll have more soon.
Late Update: Here’s the reaction from a Republican Hill staffer friend of mine — very sane good guy, but, you know, still a Republican …
Dude:
The day Henry got into this race, this result was ordained.
The differences between the 2 are, as you mentioned, HUGE.
But, honestly, the real story here is Nancy Pelosi whacked John Dingell. She put a hit on him, and it was executed.
The rest of the story takes a back seat to that FACT.
For the moment, I’m still going with ‘Holy Crap’.
Late Josh POV Update: My own take is that this is fundamentally Waxman’s doing, not Nancy Pelosi’s — though certainly Pelosi could have come out in favor of the incumbent chair (and the principle of seniority) and quite clearly did not. This seems more like their interests being aligned. And off the insidery personalities front, this is a really, really big deal in policy terms. Note too that Phil Schiliro, Waxman’s longtime top guy in the House, is now Obama’s chief Hill lobbyist. This is more grease on the skids of real change on the energy and environment front.
Later Update: TPM Reader SW does not like it …
Democrats in Congress have no sense of justice. Joe Lieberman who was rejected by CT Democrats and then rejected the party by undermining Obama during the campaign retains his committee. Congressman Dingell who helped deliver votes for Obama in blue-collar Michigan and has been a pillar of strength in the party for many, many decades gets the boot. What is wrong with this picture?
At the end of the day, I think you simply cannot make the decision on these grounds. But there’s no denying or ignoring the very different outcomes.
I don’t want to draw over-broad interpretations. But historically, the rising incidence of piracy has frequently, if not always, been a sign of the receding reach of whatever great power has taken on responsibility for policing the sea lanes. The decline of the Hellenistic monarchies in the Mediterranean before the rise of Rome. Caribbean piracy during Spain’s long slide into decrepitude and before England decided she lost more than she gained from it. There are many examples. I note too that the Russians just announced that they’re sending a few more warships to try to get things under control off the coast of East Africa.
Indicted, convicted and now defeated, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) made his farewell in the Senate today. We bring you the latest in today’s episode of TPMtv …
Full-size video at TPMtv.com.
We’re focusing today on Mack “MackDaddy” Whittle, longtime CEO of South Financial Group, who pushed 
up his retirement last month so he could cash out with a $18 million Golden Parachute just before sending his bank hat in hand to the Feds to get $347 million in choice Grade A Prime bailout money.
You don’t have to know too much about complex derivatives or even simple accounting to know that all dollars are fungible. So the more money out to Whittle is more money needed from the taxpayer to keep South Financial Group on its feet.
But we also know Whittle isn’t the only one who’s pulled something like this. And we want to put together a list of everyone who has. It doesn’t have to be precisely like this. Gazillion dollar corporate retreats while you’ve turned your company over to the Treasury Department’s corporate ICU will do fine as well.
So let us know all the examples you can think of.
Late Update: Surprise, surprise — turns out Whittle was a part of McCain’s South Carolina finance team. And now a shareholder is suing him to cough up some of the loot.
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From the AP …
More Floridians voted for John McCain than Barack Obama on Election Day, but the Democrat sealed his victory in the state by winning more early and absentee votes.
An Associated Press study of 94 percent of the state’s total shows that the Republican beat Obama by almost 5 percentage points on Nov. 4, but Obama trumped McCain by 11 percentage points in early and absentee balloting. Overall, Obama beat McCain 51.4 percent to 48.6 percent in Florida, becoming only the third Democrat in 11 presidential elections to carry the state.
And it’s not just a rhetorical point. It’s a question worth considering in very real terms. How much would things be different if Barack Obama had been sworn in on November 5th? The question, to some degree, gets at the very different policy perspectives of Bush and Obama. But at least as much, it points to how much things might be different right now if we had an actual president in office — one who had some legitimacy, some level of public approval and, most importantly, knew he’d be able to see his policies through years rather than weeks into the future.
It’s no one’s fault, per se. It’s written into our constitutional structure. But though our real and fundamental problems are profound, I think we’re paying mightily for having no captain at the helm at one of the most perilous points in our recent national history.
Former Bond staffer Trevor L. Blackann bites the dust in the Abramoff scandal.