Looking forward, Chris Clayton looks beyond the obvious temporary loss of the Democratic party's 60th vote in the Senate to assess an interesting potential reshuffling of Senate chairmanships which would land Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas as chairwoman of the Agriculture Committee:
It would then fall to Lincoln to chair Agriculture. It would lead to an interesting shift in philosophies from Harkin to Lincoln. Also, Arkansas press and political newspapers have been reporting that Lincoln likely will face tough opposition next year not only from Republicans, but possibly a primary opponent as well. Lincoln is likely going to have to demonstrate her rural, social-and-fiscal conservative credentials to hold her seat.This may have a non-trivial impact on the shape of the climate bill that is feasible in the Senate, in particular how stringent the rules and accounting on agricultural offsets are (this was one of the weak points in the House bill).
Further, Lincoln also will be far more reluctant than Harkin to push potential future reductions in commodity program payments. Lincoln was a champion over the last two years for southern agriculture in attempting to block measures that would reduce direct payments or cap overall commodity payments.As distortionary as they are, I wasn't holding my breath for agricultural subsidies to be reduced anyway.
Update: Oh, and apparently Ted Kennedy also helped create Bangladesh.
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