seniority

(Newser) - Dick Durbin has yielded his seat atop the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on crime and drugs to Arlen Specter, a consolation prize after Democrats stripped their new colleague of his seniority, Politico reports. In exchange, Durbin will take the helm of a newly reconstituted human-rights subcommittee. The move should help...

(Newser) - Arlen Specter, demoted to junior spots on Senate committees after switching to the Democratic Party, thought things would be different, he told CNN today. Majority Leader Harry Reid “said that I would maintain my committee assignments,” Specter said, “and that my seniority would be established as if...