dorsetwest.com

National Journal's Congress Daily (subscription) is reporting that the House Democratic Steering Committee has voted 25-22 to replace current House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) with second-ranking Henry Waxman (D-CA) in the next Congress.

Final decision to be ratified by the full Caucus in a vote tomorrow.

Past Daily Kos analysis here.

There's plenty of time to change his mind, but for now, McCain says he's running in 2010 (subscription only):

After much speculation that his failed presidential bid would be his last campaign, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has decided to run for re-election to his Senate seat in 2010.

McCain, 72, announced the decision during a meeting Tuesday evening with top ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), advisers Rick Davis, Charlie Black, Carla Eudy and other aides. The meeting, according to a knowledgeable source, took place off the Hill in a private office.

This is a good time to bring this poll back, pitting McCain against Gov. Janet Napolitano:

Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 10/28-30. Likely voters. MoE 4% (No trend lines)

If the 2010 election for U.S. Senate were held today for whom would you vote for if the choices were between Janet Napolitano the Democrat and John McCain the Republican?

McCain (R) 45
Napolitano (D) 53

Assuming Napolitano wins, this will be a top-tier battle.

Another day, another cabinet appointment. According to CNN's Ed Henry, Tom Daschle will serve not just as Secretary of Health and Human Services, but will also be the administration's point person on the push for a universal health care plan. (A push that Rahm Emanuel apparently has gotten behind.)

Notice that with both Holder and Daschle, President-elect Obama has apparently offered the post, and the post has been accepted. No mess, no fuss.

The auto industry is desperate to get another $25 billion in funding, and it's likely that they'll get it -- though not until the GOP has a go at being the party that killed GM. As we limp toward the well-nigh inevitable bailout, there are some demands on the table.

Under the Senate plan drafted by Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, automakers and their suppliers would have to submit a detailed plan for revamping their businesses and building more fuel-efficient models.

"This is a starting point in the Senate; there'll be a starting point in the House," Levin said. "The ending point is hopefully $25 billion in a bridge loan for the auto industry."

But the version backed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released late Monday makes far stricter demands on the industry, giving the government veto power over major business decisions.

The automakers would only get part of the $25 billion now, with the rest coming after they submit a "plan for long-term viability and international competitiveness" by March 31, or face having their first loan called back. Those plans would have to include how the automakers will restructure debt, cut costs and meet fuel economy standards.

Those are fine ideas, and certainly the public has every reason to require that we not toss another $25 billion down a rathole without any expectation of improvement.

But while they're working out what to ask of Detroit, there's one very simple thing that should be at the top of the list. Stop blocking the states that are trying to do the right thing.

Under the federal Clean Air Act, California is entitled to set more stringent pollution regulations on motor vehicles than the federal Environmental Protection Agency so long as California receives a waiver from EPA. Yet the U.S. automobile industry has prevailed upon the Bush EPA to deny California a Clean Air Act waiver in a decision that was contradicted by the analysis of the EPA's own staff.

For decades, the America auto industry has been "helped" toward the dustbin of history by Senators and Congressmen who have ensured that they don't have to make improvements as quickly as their competitors. Honestly, I don't care if Chrysler throws out every executive, or if GM lays out a blueprint for becoming profitable by 2015. I do care if they're begging for cash while still colluding with the Bush administration to block implementation of the Clean Air Act.

In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:

FLOOR SCHEDULE FOR WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2008
House meets at 1:00 p.m. for Legislative Business
No votes are expected

Members are advised that the House will reassemble at 1:00 p.m., at which time Member-elect Marcia Fudge (OH-11) will be sworn in.

In the Senate, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:

Convenes: 9:30am
Morning Business with senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S.3297.

Not long ago, the hope in the Congress was that this week's lame duck session would be spent on further economic recovery measures. But without agreement ahead of time that whatever they work on won't just be filibustered or vetoed, it's not looking like a whole lot's going to happen. There aren't even any votes scheduled in the House, though they'll be convening to swear in Marcia Fudge, who'll be filling the seat of Stephanie Tubbs Jones, who passed away in August.

Over on the Senate side, further consideration of whether or not to filibuster consideration of all the bills previously filibustered by Crossword Tommy Coburn. Yes, it's the continuing saga of the "Tomnibus."

The last go-round on which there was a vote featured a failed cloture motion that garnered 52 votes, including Lieberman's and those of three Republicans: Coleman, Smith and Warner. Pending the outcome of the Minnesota race, all three could be replaced by Democrats in January.

Just as a reminder, we'll be kicking off our Congress-watching blog just as soon as we get the kinks worked out. So for those wondering how the role of the Daily Kos community can evolve under our new circumstances, this could perhaps be part of the answer: a closer look at the mechanics, procedure, politics and personalities who'll actually undertake the business of governing. The more you know... blah, blah, blah.

Stay tuned for further details.

The news of the day just gets better and better. Here's hoping there's some way the Obama Justice Department could or would revoke this:

The Justice Department has agreed to pay for a private lawyer to defend former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales against allegations that he encouraged officials to inject partisan politics into the department's hiring and firing practices.

Lawyers from the Justice Department's civil division often represent department employees who're sued in connection with their official actions. However, Gonzales' attorney recently revealed in court papers that the Justice Department had approved his request to pay private attorney's fees arising from the federal lawsuit.

Dan Metcalfe, a former high-ranking veteran Justice Department official who filed the suit on behalf of eight law students, called the department's decision to pay for a private attorney rather than rely on its civil division "exceptional."

"It undoubtedly will cost the taxpayers far more," he said....

Asked why Gonzales made the request, Gonzales spokesman Robert Bork Jr. said that his client "values the work that the department's civil attorneys do in all cases" but thinks that "private counsel can often be useful where (department) officials are sued in an individual capacity, even where the suit has no substantive merit."

The case stems from the politicized hiring practices in the department that stacked it with ideologically "pure" Regent University types over highly qualified but "politically suspect" applicants.

We should have gotten the slimy little bastard impeached and instead we're going to have to foot the bill for his legal defense. Isn't that just a perfect summation of this whole f'ed up administration? We're going to be paying for the myriad debacles they created for who knows how long.

From an article on Texas "losing its clout" when George Bush finally leaves office, former Counselor to the President Dan Bartlett:

I won’t be surprised if there is a resurgence after this president rides off into the sunset and all those animosities and short-term issues around George W. Bush fade away.

If only there weren't all of those long-term issues like Iraq, massive debt, loss of stature in the world, a shredded Constitution...

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...

Results: Testing the "Lieberman Effect"

Yesterday I got stopped for speeding. I told the cop he was a terrorist sympathizer who wants America to fail. He let me off with a warning. I complained. He took back the warning and let me go after giving me his handcuffs as a gift.

Yesterday my neighbor loaned me his leafblower. When I was done with it he asked for it back. I told him to go screw himself. He said I could keep the leafblower forever and apologized for bothering me.

Yesterday I told a friend I'd pick her up after her outpatient surgery and drive her home, but I blew her off so I could go see a movie. Afterward I called her up to tell her how great it was. She laughed and said the walk home wasn't too bad because only one of her feet was operated on and besides it was only ten miles and she had a cane.

Yesterday my landlord stopped by to fix the basement door. I poured hot coffee down his pants. He screamed. I expressed regret. He lowered the rent.

Yesterday I appeared at the trial of my uncle to defend him as a character witness against false charges of pedophilia. I decided instead to tell the jury that, yeah, he probably was a pedophile because sometimes he gets that look in his eye. As he was led off to jail to begin his 20-year sentence, he waved and said I could have his Ferrari.

Damn. It works.

Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

Wednesday is a good day to abbreviate.

Thomas Frank:

It is possible, I suppose, that the pundits are right and the public didn't really mean it when it elected a liberal Democrat president and gave Democrats even larger majorities in both houses of Congress. Maybe America really wants the same nice, reassuring, centrist thing as always.

But it is also possible that, for once, the public weighed the big issues and gave a clear verdict on the great economic questions of the last few decades. It is likely that we really do want universal health care and some measure of wealth-spreading, and even would like to see it become easier to organize a union in the workplace, however misguided such ideas may seem to the nation's institutions of higher carping.

Thomas Friedman: So now all the lazy pundits are back to writing about the Clintons. How should we feel about that?

Maureen Dowd: If Hillary Clinton gets to be the Mistress of Foggy Bottom, my forlornness when I'm not writing about the Clintons would be alleviated.

David Broder: Not the Clintons!! Nooooo!!! Will no one rid me of this scourge?

Kathleen Parker (apostate):

As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit.

Three little letters, great big problem: G-O-D.

I'm bathing in holy water as I type.

To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh.

Brendan Miniter: Forget the RINOs.

Maybe that's because Republicans have looked closely at the election results. The country hasn't so much moved left as it has abandoned a GOP that abandoned its own principles. In Ohio, Barack Obama actually won about 40,000 fewer votes than John Kerry did four years ago. Mr. Obama took Ohio only because John McCain pulled 350,000 fewer votes than George W. Bush did in 2004. Republicans and Republican-leaning voters stayed home.

That's not an endorsement of the ideas of the left. It's a lack enthusiasm for a party that failed to deliver the smaller government it promised in Washington. At least the GOP, in settling on future leaders like Governors Jindal, Sanford and Palin, seems to understand that.

Bwa-ha-ha-ha.

Michael Gerson: When it comes to complex economic issues, leave it to a Bush speech writer to explain why the GOP doesn't suck as much as it appears – and why in the end they'll do the right thing even though they don't want to.

See also  Kula2316's Morning Reaction.

Yesterday, Ted Kennedy returned to Capitol Hill and that means health care will be on the agenda: The brief appearance by Kennedy, who made a surprise return in July to vote on a Medicare bill, represented an opportunity for him to show colleagues that he remains energetic and engaged, and that he intends to reclaim his committee post in January and take charge of the Obama health-care agenda. Some Democrats had speculated that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) would attempt to assume the chairmanship of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) rolled out his own health-care bill days after Obama was elected, and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) also expects to be a leading participant in the effort to establish universal health care.

Kennedy has a head start on them all. Despite his illness, he directed his staff months ago to begin work on legislation that would vastly expand health coverage, a career-long goal of his. Take charge, Ted.

And to push the health care agenda, Health Care for America Now (HCAN), which has been a wonderful supporter of the blogosphere through their advertising, has a new ad:

By video link, President-Elect Barack Obama spoke to a gathering of governors and foreign officials in Los Angeles Tuesday, reiterating his stance on climate policy.

The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear. ...

My presidency will mark a new chapter in America’s leadership on climate change that will strengthen our security and create millions of new jobs in the process.

That will start with a federal cap and trade system. We will establish strong annual targets that set us on a course to reduce emissions to their 1990 levels by 2020 and reduce them an additional 80% by 2050.

Further, we will invest $15 billion each year to catalyze private sector efforts to build a clean energy future. We will invest in solar power, wind power, and next generation biofuels. We will tap nuclear power, while making sure it’s safe. And we will develop clean coal technologies.

This investment will not only help us reduce our dependence on foreign oil, making the United States more secure. And it will not only help us bring about a clean energy future, saving our planet. It will also help us transform our industries and steer our country out of this economic crisis by generating five million new green jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced.

But the truth is, the United States cannot meet this challenge alone.

John Broder at The New York Times writes:

Some industry leaders and members of Congress have suggested that Mr. Obama’s climate proposal would impose too great a cost on an already-stressed economy — having the same effects as a tax on coal, oil and natural gas — and should await the end of the current downturn. A bill similar to Mr. Obama’s plan failed to clear the Senate earlier this year, largely because of concerns about its impact on the economy.

The same old, same old from the fossilized powers-that-be.

Some environmental advocates also have critiqued what they've heard from President-Elect Obama previously and what he's repeating in this video: about what they believe are inadequate goals for reducing carbon emissions by 2020, about the prospects for truly "clean" coal, about nuclear power.

My own perspective is that conservation should at least get a shout-out every time climate policy and energy policy are mentioned in one of these speeches, however short. Happily, it's on the agenda, as you can see at the Obama-Biden transition Web site. So there is no reason it should not be mentioned in the speeches.

Most important, the incoming administration should recognize that $15 billion a year over 10 years - $150 billion - isn't nearly enough for the government's portion of funding for clean energy. That's only a single year's U.S. military spending in Iraq and Afghanistan. Dealing with global warming, weaning ourselves off fossil fuels and all the rest of it, is going to take a war-time level of government and private investment. That's both the frame and the reality: Don't call it spending, call it investment in a Green New Deal.

Despite criticisms, Obama has delivered a welcome and timely message in advance of the international negotiations on climate coming up in Poland in two weeks. The crux: Global warming deniers are finally getting the boot instead of the red carpet treatment at the White House. Expect science once again to be respectable in the federal government.

+ + +

The Overnight News Digest is posted and includes the story, Gift card sales seen down 6 percent this holiday.

ADN:Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich's lead over Sen. Ted Stevens is growing in today's ballot count in the race for U.S. Senate. The latest numbers, issued just before 1 p.m., show Begich up by 2,374 votes.

The Division of Elections expects to release more numbers between 4 and 5 p.m.

Today's count of about 24,000 absentee and questioned ballots should pretty much decide the race, although there will be a few more overseas absentees to count over the next couple days and a likely recount in early December.

Since the state moved to mostly machine counting, recent Alaska recounts have resulted in little change in the final tally.

And his little dog too. Someone is so getting a pardon for Christmas. From AP:A South Texas grand jury has indicted Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on charges related to the alleged abuse of prisoners in Willacy County's federal detention centers.

The indictment criticizes Cheney's investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds interests in the private prison companies running the federal detention centers. It accuses Cheney of a conflict of interest and "at least misdemeanor assaults" on detainees by working through the prison companies.

Tonight's Rescue Rangers are Louisiana 1976, ybruti, HansScholl, dadanation, taylormattd and srkp23 with vcmvo2 editing.

~ The time is always right to do what is right.
Martin Luther King, Jr ~

Time to do Right

• Valtin discusses The Forgotten Men: New UC Report on "Guantánamo and its Aftermath". (ybruti)
• Thin Ice reports on The NASA transition: Why Griffin must go. (srkp23)
• Chris Rodda reminds us how far we still have to go before we can claim to be free of prejudice in Beating of Jewish Soldier at Fort Benning Turns Allies Into Foes. (dadanation)
• crowbar317 makes A Case for the Auto Industry Bailout by showing what happened to workers in the failed textile industry. (ybruti)

Life Stories

• Milos Janus Outlook writes that rescuing man's best friend can also be the Rescue of a Human. (srkp23)
• CA coastsider shares the long, rich life story of her father and her grief over his passing in The Grieving Room - a life well-lived. (Louisiana 1976)
• ramara describes the problems of a small town orchestra in A Little Piece of the Economy. (ybruti)

Leadership & Policy

• dansac's Obama Declares Fight on Global Warming Today (w/Video) revels in the reality of a President-elect who actually believes science. (dadanation)
• JohnnyRook provides a thorough update on global warming-induced ice melting around the globe in Climaticide Update: Thirsty Yet? Alpine Glaciers in Full Retreat. (taylormattd)
• Press to Digitate looks at "America's dirty little infrastructure secret" in An America Flush with Infrastructure: Why They're ALL "Bridges to Nowhere". (srkp23)
• A Siegel discusses the risks and benefits of debating global warming with climate change skeptics in Truth vs Truthiness: Debating Global Warming with those beyond convincing. (taylormattd)

jotter has High Impact Diaries: November 17, 2008.

brillig brings Top Comments- 11/18/08 Splinter Meet Log Edition.

Enjoy and please share your own favorite diary in this Open Thread.

::

No doubt you've all heard the hottest rumor coming out of Washington over the last week; that the top choice for Secretary of State in the Obama Administration is none other than Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

As of right now, that's still a rumor. No evidence that Obama is going to offer it, none that she'd take it. We'll wait and see. But that doesn't mean we don't get to speculate...

Leaving aside the merits of the selection (personally, I think she'd be an outstanding choice, but then, I've always liked her), the next question would be: if Clinton is offered the position and accepts it, who would be appointed as her successor?

What's interesting about such speculation now, as opposed to during Clinton's presidential campaign, is that the leading choice for a replacement during much of her campaign is now out of the running. That would be Governor David Paterson, who seemed a likely pick when he was Lieutenant Governor, but ascended to the governorship upon the resignation of Governor Eliot Spitzer.

So now that Paterson is out of the running, who might the new governor select to fill Clinton's shoes? A couple things to keep in mind:

• Paterson has never been elected governor, and though he is currently fairly popular in New York, he could face a spirited Republican challenge. Rudy Giuliani is kicking the tires as we speak, and trails Paterson in polling by six points as of now. Michael Bloomberg is out, but theoretically another wealthy liberal Republican could step up. As such, Paterson will probably ultimately do what's best for his own reelection, and pick someone to shore up support among a particular constituency.

• Hillary Rodham Clinton is the first female Senator in New York history. Paterson will be under some pressure to appoint a woman to fill her seat.

• New York has never had a black or Latino Senator.

• There will be some pressure to appoint a Senator from upstate. Both Paterson and senior Senator Chuck Schumer hail from New York City, and Clinton lives in Westchester County just north of the city.

• Schumer could be a major player in the negotiations, as Dick Durbin has been in Illinois. Schumer is arguably the most powerful politician in New York State, and as two-term DSCC chair, is the captain of Democratic Senate recruitment around the country. He will no doubt seek to be somewhat involved in the process within his own state. While Schumer and former Governor Spitzer had a frosty relationship, he will likely have more influence with the less combative Paterson.

So here are some of the names being kicked around:

Rep. Nydia Velazquez of Brooklyn. She's a Brooklyn native, like Schumer. However, she's a woman and a Latina, which would cater to two critical Paterson constituencies. Velazquez kills two birds with one stone like no other candidate.

In addition to being the second woman and the first Hispanic to represent New York in the Senate, she'd be the first Latina Senator from any state.

The New York Daily News reports that Velazquez is the current frontrunner. She's a perfectly solid vote, so she'd be a fine appointment from that perspective, and she'd help Paterson. The major drawback to Velazquez is that she might have some trouble holding the seat. It's not clear how well she'd run upstate.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler of Manhattan. Nadler wants the appointment badly - if anything, he may want it too badly. He'd be a great Senator if he got it, but a Nadler appointment doesn't do much politically. If anything, it might be dangerous to Paterson to appoint another white man from NYC to the Senate.

Rep. Brian Higgins of Buffalo. Higgins fits the bill as an upstater, and he's a generally solid vote. That said, he probably wouldn't set the world on fire as a Senator, and though he'd be better positioned than Velazquez for reelection, his appointment would lack the historic significance that appointing Velazquez would have. Higgins would be fine, but unexciting, and a backbencher.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo has Washington experience from his term as HUD secretary during the Clinton administration, and a Cuomo appointment would eliminate a potential primary rival for Paterson in 2010 (although a Cuomo run against Paterson for Governor would be folly).

Rep. Steve Israel of Long Island. Israel wouldn't exactly solve the upstate problem, and he isn't a minority. That said, he's a pretty decent vote, his Blue Dog membership aside. He'd be about as generic an appointment as one could ask for.

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown. He's the dark-horse pick here, but he's an exciting prospect for two reasons; he's African-American, and he's an upstater. Beyond those, he's a rising star in the state party, and would be a good vote in the Senate.

Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand of Columbia County. She's considered a major rising star in the party; she's young, intelligent, attractive, won an upset victory in 2006 and a convincing reelection this year.

She's a woman and an upstater, so she's a solid pick for those reasons. Only problem is her Blue Doggery, as well as the fact that she holds a seat which could go Republican in 2010. She'd be a sure thing for reelection, though.

Rep. Michael Arcuri of Oneida County. Arcuri was considered a rising star in the party until nearly blowing his 2008 reelection against no-name opponent Richard Hanna. This has taken some of the luster off of the Congressman.

If Hillary Clinton is appointed to the Senate, as the Guardian believes she will be, it should be an exciting time for New Yorkers.

Dean:

So if you run and get a mandate for reconciliation is your first act to kick this guy out of the party?

The question wasn't kicking Lieberman out of the party. Democrats in Connecticut already did that in 2006.

And once again, given this "mandate for reconciliation", I suspect that Reid won't reduce committee staff and seats for Republicans? Since that would be punitive. And we all want reconciliation, right? And maybe we can give Inhofe his committee chairmanship back, because apparently, the American people didn't vote for change.

And while we're at it, it just wouldn't be right for Obama to rid the executive branch of its thousands of political appointees, right? Because the first act once you have a "mandate for reconciliation" shouldn't be booting people out of their jobs for the pesky little reason that they supported the other party.

Right?

A perfect illustration of  just how weak Harry Reid is.

Looks like Mark Begich will be setting up a new office in DC after all.....MSNBC is reporting the race in Alaska has been called for Mark Begich.

WASHINGTON - Convicted Sen. Ted Stevens lost his re-election bid to Democrat Mark Begich after the last large batch of votes was counted Tuesday.

The longest-serving Republican in the history of the Senate trailed Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich by 3,724 votes after Tuesday's count.

That's an insurmountable lead with only about 2,500 overseas ballots left to be counted.

Per Lawrence O'Donnell and Dan Abrams on MSNBC, the vote difference is great enough Stevens would have to pay for a recount if he wanted one. And with a 3,724 vote lead, a recount is unlikely.

Welcome, Senator Begich!

Bill Clinton was the first major Democratic figure to step into the Georgia runoff, but he won't be the last. His Vice President, Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore, has joined the fray on behalf of Orange to Blue Democrat Jim Martin:

Jim Martin, the Democratic candidate in the contentious Georgia Senate runoff, is getting a big Democratic name coming into the state for him: Al Gore, who will be going to Georgia on Sunday, a Martin campaign source confirmed to Election Central.

Martin is still the underdog against incumbent GOP Sen. Saxby Chambliss, but this race remains on the table. The runoff election is expected to have very low turnout -- it's effectively the same as a special election in many ways -- and as such will be all about ginning up turnout among the party base.

As TPM states, turnout is the key for a runoff election. Clinton's visit tomorrow, and Gore's on Sunday, ought to help. An Obama visit - or television ad - would help even more.

But Martin has received one major assist in spurring turnout - from the AFL-CIO.

The AFL-CIO, which helped prove labor's organizing muscle with its formidable ground game in the battleground states, is now ramping up big time in the high-stakes Georgia runoff, putting in place an operation that it bills as the largest effort the federation has ever taken for what is effectively a special election.

They're doing a mailer to 80,000 homes, and they're looking not only to increase that dramatically, but get out a small army of volunteers:

AFL shifted field staff from around the country to the state last week and is aiming to recruit in the neighborhood of 10,000 volunteers between now and the voting early next month. AFL is also hoping to drop over half a million pieces of mail in the next couple of weeks and mounting an aggressive door-knocking operation.

Every vote counts in a low-turnout runoff, every mailer, every ad, and every dollar.

On the web:
Jim Martin for U.S. Senate
Orange to Blue ActBlue Page

DMN:

The dwindling ranks of GOP senators chose Texan John Cornyn this morning to lead their campaign effort for the next two years.

"The right policies and the right message are very, very important, but they don’t count for much unless you can win elections," Mr. Cornyn said after Senate Republicans elected leaders for the new Congress. "Now we’ll get to work."

The title says "National," but the party's increasingly regional. The hard-right rump of what used to be a national base. And the GOP's cure? A hard-right Texan, who is, rather fortuitously, a bit of a rump himself.

But really, what choice have they got? You choose your leaders from the Senators you have, not the Senators you might want, or might wish to have at a later time.