The Senior Senator from NH

Since news broke that President Obama was going to nominate Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) to the cabinet position of Commerce Secretary everyone has been asking me my thoughts, you know being the astute NH political observer that I am...HA! Well here are my thought's anyways.

Initially I was disappointed by Governor John Lynch not showing a little more backbone and maybe standing up for the Democratic party in his own state, of which he claims to be a member, and saying you know what no I'm not going to turn my back on the state party even if you are Barack Obama. However as I've though about it that wouldn't really be a feasible option for Lynch as he needs to do whatever he can to win the good graces (read: stimulus money) of Barack Obama. Particularly since most in the state are pretty certian Lynch can balance the budget with out that additional money.

My thoughts then turned to Representative Paul Hodes (D-NH) and Representative Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH) both of whom have been expressing greater interest in running for Gregg's seat in the Senate, how would this appointment affect those plans? Before the actual appointment had been announced by Lynch I thought it would be a cunning political move by Gregg to demand that Lynch appoint recently defeated John E. Sununu. In that scenario Lynch's career would be over regardless of what he did appoint Sununu and your own party would want blood, don't appoint Sununu and you're essentially slapping the incredibly popular President, a member of your part, in the face by denying him his pick for Commerce Secretary (Gregg said he'd only accept if the balance of power in the Senate didn't change). As it turns out Lynch decided to appoint J. Bonnie Newman, a loyal Gregg devotee, to the vacant seat. Hodes has now offically announced his campaign and in all likelihood the Democrats may have a much better shot at Newman who'll only be warming the seat for a year than they would have at Gregg, although I think he was vulnerable as well.

Perhaps my favorite part of all this are the two pieces of trivia below from MSNBC:

2. New Hampshire will become the FOURTH state to currently have two female senators: (Washington, California and Maine do now)

3. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) will, after only 30 days in office, become the SENIOR Senator from New Hampshire. As Senate Historical Office's Betty Koed points out, with that new title comes the privilege of getting the coveted Daniel Webster Senate desk. By law, the senior senator from NH gets to use the desk!

Yeah that's right, the Senior Senator from New Hampshire is by Senate rule entitled to the Daniel Webster desk!!! Which I just find awesome.  Hopefully this will put to rest any argument over whether Webster is New Hampshire's son (though that was never truly in doubt) or Massachusetts'.