Well I called Reid and Franken and Dodd's offices and the only explanation that I got

was from Dodd's office and they said that they were not sure why Franken would not be seated on the committee until after the markup for the health bill. The aide I talked to said that it could possibly be because he was not present for the discussions that led up to the writing of the bill. I was also told that he would be sitting on the committee in a non member role during the mark up and vote on the health bill. I am sure that these committees do not hold Senators to any type of attendance requirement that would be used as a pre-requisite for voting on a bill.

And I really doubt that the Repugs would ever do to one of theirs what Reid has done to Franken. Because when you get to the nuts and bolts, voting on the floor of the Senate does not mean that a Senator has or is required to have read a bill.

The loyal party line - that concept must surely be alien to Harry Reid.

:wtf: :banghead:

He's worse. He actually is setting us back. With malice aforethought.

We would be much better off without him in the leadership position. And, if things don't turn around he is likely to lose his next election. It happened to Foley and Daschle when they were in leadership positions. And, I would love to see Barney Frank in place of Pelosi in the House.

What's this about Al Franken and the health care bill??????

Is this why Ed Schultz is ranting about him on Air America?

(I had no internet yesterday. Someone jammed my dsl cable into the ethernet port.)

but gave caveat on the Health.Education.Labor.Pensions post...he wont join that committee til AFTER markup on the HealthCare reform bill.

doesn't want to do so until after the bill leaves committee.

Whitehouse. He's done a fantastic job during that markup. Don't you also think seating Al on the committee now would be similar to letting an alternate juror replace one who could no longer serve, but after the jury had already deliberated?

Sheldon has pointed out a lot of the potential legal problems with some of the Pubs ammendments dureing the markup on the HELP committee. I don't mean that Al wouldn't also contribute , but he couldn't replace Sheldon as a very good lawyer.

I think they're close to being done with this markup anyway. It will be OK.

I'm trying to remember what other Senator (I'm certain a Democrat) was filling in for Franken while the election clusterfuck with Coleman was resolved.

And yeah, there is something to the idea that changing committee members in the middle of the bill-drafting process would make a huge mess.