McConnell faces tough choice on open Finance Committee spot

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has a tough decision over whom to appoint for the newly opened spot on one of the Senate’s most powerful committees.

A Republican spot on the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over taxes, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, opened Thursday when Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) announced his resignation. The resignation becomes effective May 3.

{mosads}McConnell could pay heed to seniority rankings and appoint Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), a leader of the Tea Party movement and prominent conservative.

Or he could pick Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), a well-liked member of the Senate Republican conference who is respected for his pragmatic approach to solving policy problems.

A third member in the mix, who has more seniority than DeMint and Isakson, is Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.). But Burr, a close friend of House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), appeared to take his hat out of the ring on Friday.

Burr’s spokeswoman Samantha Smith said her boss “has no interest in changing his committee assignments.”

The Senate Republican conference has traditionally hewed to seniority rankings when choosing committee chairmanships, ranking memberships and panel assignments. 

DeMint and Isakson were both elected to the Senate in 2004, but DeMint has a slight edge in seniority because he served longer in the House.

He won election to the lower chamber in 1998 after former Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) ran unsuccessfully for Senate. Isakson didn’t win election to Congress until February 1999 when he won a six-way race to fill the remainder of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s (R-Ga.) term.

But DeMint has been a subtle rival of McConnell’s in recent years, challenging his leader on earmarks, to cite just one example.

His status in the Senate has risen, thanks to his financial backing of several members of the freshman class. DeMint is also a founding member of the Senate Tea Party Caucus and seen as one of the populist movement’s leaders in Congress.

That might prompt McConnell to consider DeMint more closely for the open position.

McConnell is returning from a congressional delegation trip to Afghanistan and has not begun to consider who will replace Ensign, according to a spokesman.

“He hasn’t even started to consider it,” said Don Stewart, McConnell’s aide.

Some GOP aides think the antagonisms between McConnell and DeMint are too sharp for the GOP leader to reward him with such a plum position.

Conservative activists, however, would applaud the decision. They would relish an uncompromising conservative on the committee, who would press his ranking member and colleagues to stick to their conservative principles.

RedState.com, a conservative blog, has in the past urged its readers to lobby McConnell to name DeMint to Finance.

But the Senate Republican leader has not been afraid of usurping the pecking order of seniority rankings when making assignments to the Finance Committee.

In January of 2008, McConnell picked former Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.), who faced a tough reelection battle that year (and lost), over Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), who had more seniority.

That choice was not without fallout.

“I’m pissed,” Enzi told The Hill after learning he was passed over.

Enzi, who now sits on Finance, was also passed for the committee in 2007. McConnell rewarded Ensign for chairing the National Republican Senatorial Committee by naming him to Finance in July of 2007, after the death of Sen. Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.).

Isakson was widely rumored to be in line for a seat on Finance when Republicans had two seats to fill after the 2010 mid-term election. He lost out, however, to Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and John Thune (R-S.D.), who outrank him in seniority by virtue of serving longer terms in the House.