With an inexorable effort over many years, Waxman ground down the opposition of Dingell and the entrenched interests he represented, ultimately taking the very powerful chairmanship of the full Energy and Commerce Committee away from him when Obama became president, the better to push the national health care legislation called Obamacare but principally authored by Waxman.
Without the chairmanship, said Mr. Perkins, who represents Harlem, "you just don't have as much juice".
Ms. Hillgen said the council's four Republicans voted with the Democrats to change committee assignments in January not as a means of removing Mr. Fredette and Mr. Vaccola from committees and stripping them of key chairmanships as they contend, but rather to insure that Republicans are more equitably represented on the panels.
Now, Democratic officials and donors say that that the ethical questions hanging over Mr. Rangel, who has represented Harlem in Congress since 1971, are taking a toll, particularly as Republicans spotlight his problems in ads and repeated pushes are made to try to force him to step aside from the chairmanship.
The political history represented and referred to in this collection includes the Chinese Civil War (1927-1949), thestablishmentnt of the People's Republic of China (1949), the chairmanship of Mao Zedong (1949-1976), and the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).
Alternatively, one could also imagine instead of one president, a rotating chairmanship of a Council of Chancellors that would represent the best interests of all 10 universities (not just the biggest, UCLA and Berkeley) to the governor and regents.
Mr. Ruding also mentions his domestic experience as a Finance Minister and his international experience, including the chairmanship of the I.M.F.'s interim committee, which represents all the fund's members.
His payoff was chairmanship of the Government Reform Committee, a prime post for someone who represents so many federal workers.
The Senate has backed itself into an undemocratic corner with its seniority rules and chairmanship perks, which in this case serve to magnify, not represent, the influence of the far right.
