Sen.-elect John Thune of South Dakota won a coveted spot on the Armed Services Committee.
First sentence in Argus Leader story:
Republican John Thune did not get onto the U.S. Senate's Agriculture Committee as he had hoped, but is pleased with the assignments he did receive for his work next year in Congress.
The Argus also ignores the history of the Armed Services committee (but does get some thoughts from environmentalists about the committee assignments):
By securing a seat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator-elect Thune will renew a South Dakota tradition of having one of its senators sit on the Committee. Senator John Chandler (Chan) Gurney, who was instrumental in creating Ellsworth Air Force Base, was the first chairman of the Armed Services Committee when it was formed in 1947. (The Committee, which as now named was created in 1947, traces its history to the Military Affairs Committee and the Naval Affairs Committee, both of which were established in 1816.) Senator Francis Case was also a member of the Committee. Since Senator Case’s death in 1962, South Dakota has not had a senator on the Committee until Thune’s appointment.
JASON ADDS: I think today's Argus Leader article on Thune's committee assignments indicates the kind of coverage Thune can expect for the next six years. It's going to be similar to the AL's coverage of Senator Pressler during his tenure in the Senate, which even the New York Times described at the time as "vituperative." The Capitol Hill publication Roll Call described the AL's coverage of Pressler at the time as "hysterical bashing."
Bearing in mind the AL's past vituperative and hysterical coverage of Republican senators, today's article is an unsurprising case study in accentuating the negative and eliminating the positive. The article doesn't indicate that Thune was one of only two freshman GOP senators to get assigned to an elite committee. (Mel Martinez was assigned to Foreign Relations.) Yes, Armed Services is a committee of "national stature" but it's crucial to the interests of South Dakota as well. There's a better chance Ellsworth AFB will gain a new mission because of Thune's seat on Armed Services. South Dakota soldiers fighting the war on terror will benefit from Thune's advocacy on the committee for better equipment, pay, and benefits. Yet in reading today's article, one gets the distinct impression that Thune's committee assignments are a disaster because Thune purportedly "lost out" on Agriculture.
What's more, as Jon notes, is that the Argus Leader completely ignores the history of South Dakota's role on Armed Services. There's no mention that Senator Chan Gurney of South Dakota was the FIRST chairman of the Armed Services committee. You'd think that would be a nice factoid for readers to know. Apparently, it's more important to the Argus Leader for readers to think that Thune's committee assignments are a disaster than to actually be informed.
The truth is, Thune being one of only two freshman GOP senators to get on an elite committee is a spectacular accomplishment, and the Argus Leader has once again done a disservice to its readers by spinning Thune's committee assignments as a disaster. Mark my words: the AL's coverage of Thune is going to be uncannily similar to its coverage of Pressler, and this is only the beginning.
To see the full list of the Senate GOP committee assignments, click HERE.
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