One of the most obvious manifestations of Sen. Arlen Specter ’s party switch occurred Thursday morning, when his desk was moved from the Republican to the Democratic side of the aisle.
The five-term Pennsylvania senator, as one of the chamber’s most senior members, had sat in the second row of the center-most Republican desks, immediately behind Minority Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona. As the eighth most senior Democrat, his desk now sits in the second row of the center-most section of the majority party’s desks, behind Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin of Illinois.
Specter now shares a row with Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, the longest-serving senator ever, and sits between Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut and Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, just over Durbin’s right shoulder.
“We arrived the same day in the Senate in 1981 so we’ve been friends for a long time,” said Dodd, the chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee who is considered senior because he served in the House before he and Specter both were sworn in Jan. 5, 1981.
Dodd added that he was “satisfied” that seniority arrangements had been “worked out to the satisfaction of everyone.”
Among others who have occupied the mahogany desk Specter now uses was Robert M. LaFollette Jr. of Wisconsin, who was elected to succeed his father as a Republican in 1925 and later re-elected as a Progressive in 1934 and 1940.
No comments:
Post a Comment