ON BEING "IN LINE" FOR COMMITTEE CHAIR

Susan Collins snookering Maine media, but only because they want to be snookered

Maine outlets have run a bunch of stories about Susan Collins being "in line” to chair the Senate Appropriations Committee, while also mentioning that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) may leverage his seniority to snag the post instead. (Why isn’t he the one “in line”, then?)

While it’s true that Senate Republicans have procedures for awarding committee chairs, they also have a history of departing from those procedures when it suits them, including in cases related to Collins.

In other words, whether she gets the chair is fundamentally a political question rather than a dry procedural one — and a decision the Republican party will make by weighing a slew of factors: What has Collins done for the GOP lately? How important is the chair to her reelection effort? What does You-Know-Who think should happen?

In short, if Collins does become committee chair, it will because she has kissed the right rings and made commitments that have satisfied Senate GOP colleagues. If she doesn’t, that will also be telling, and in that case it would be wise to expect that the party will find other ways to try to boost her electoral prospects.

But whatever is decided, it won’t simply be a matter of it being (or not being) “her turn” — no matter how many times she says it and no matter how many Maine outlets accede to her preferred framing.