Patsfanin Philly

The Senate is the prototypical 'good ole boy' network with seniority having its perks. For years Massachusetts benefited by having two long standing
Senators, Kennedy (nearly 50 years of service) and John Kerry (currently 9th in seniority). Ask the late Robert Byrd if there were benefits...
Now with John Kerry being selected for Secretary of State and Elizabeth Warren about to succeed Scott Brown, Massachusetts Senators will be dead last in seniority. Why? Among the 12 new Senators, seniority is broken by many factors, among them prior service in the House of Representatives which unfortunately she doesn't have any of . So she will have among the least seniority of the newer Senators. Couple that with whoever succeeds Kerry in a special election will have the least seniority ( even if it's Scott Brown since seniority depends on continuous service). You have to start all over sometime so we'll get to see if affects the Commonwealth.....

Seniority in the United States Senate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Um, Mr. Brady, can we line up?

DarrylS

In the past have questioned those states that have voted out a middle of the road "senior" congressman for a new one, for no particular reason. INOW a congressman who rates 9 on some partisan scale, to be replaced with a congressman who is rated 8 on the same scale..

People often forget than within those hallowed walls seniority is a really big thing..

Am ambivalent about Kerry, on one hand he is another case for term limits and on the other wonder what the political landscape will look like with his successor.. as a Democrat cannot imagine that all consequences of his appointment were considered..

Unless Scott Brown flips, which I heard rumors about last summer..

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"Being the best doesn't mean you always win. It just means you win more than anyone else".. tweet from Kurt Warner to Tom Brady.

IcyPatriot

Maybe Massachusetts will get it right this time around.

scout

Seniority seems to be a concern among citizens (term limits). Ted Kennedy might be the poster boy for not getting it right. He fights his whole career for health care. The President (Carter) has a proposal that is very good and will probably become law. Kennedy uses his bargaining chips to defeat it.....wtf?

We have also seen a number of veteran Senators defeated in recent elections (tho, mostly Rep. by the tea party). There will always be seniority benefits, but there might be a silver lining here.