Presiding over his first hearing since he was named chair of the House Appropriations Committee’s Defense Subcommittee, Rep. Norm Dicks (D-WA) showed that not even members of Congress are immune to first-day-on-the-job jitters.
He wrapped up the second part of his smoothly-delivered introduction to this morning’s defense budget hearing with, “I’d like to call on the Ranking Member of the full committee, Mr. Obey, for any comments he’d like to make.” The problem? ‘Ranking Member’ is a secondary, minority title held by Rep. Don Young (R-AK). Rep. David Obey (D-WI) is the chair of the committee – a position controlled exclusively by Democrats, as long as they remain in the majority.
Obey, however, refused to hand over his powerful chairmanship so easily. “Did we lose the election?” he asked.
“We haven’t lost it yet,” Dicks replied.
“We’re not going to, either,” Obey assured the other members and witnesses in attendance. “I’m used to this kind of calumny from the other side of the aisle…We’re operating at somewhat of a disadvantage, because he’s very inexperienced, he’s only been on this subcommittee 31 years, and so he has a shortage of knowledge in terms of the issues at hand. In all seriousness, I think people understand him to be a serious, dedicated, and tenacious member of Congress.”
Rep. Dicks was named chair of the subcommittee in March, following the death of former chair Rep. John Murtha (D-PA).