HOUSE TIDBITS.

Wrote this piece, and from it there are two interesting notes for House watchers.

1. With the departure of Rahm Emanuel, the position of Caucus Chair gets less plum. Emanuel had kept himself heavily involved in DCCC operations and basically supervised incumbent retention. But Emanuel's apparent successor, John Larson, won't get those responsibilities -- they're going back to Chris Van Hollen, who remains as DCCC Chair with the additional title of "Assistant to the Speaker." He'll be keeping in close touch with the White House (read, Rahm) on policy issues as well.

2. At least two people who would know (blind quotes suck but that's the way of the world) don't expect the Waxman challenge to Dingell at the Energy committee to get anywhere, in part because the last two classes of new representatives are more conservative on the whole than other members and will support the incumbent. The leadership hopes that it won't come to a vote, because Waxman, who is more closely identified with Pelosi (who isn't taking a position on the challenge) will drop out when he realizes he doesn't have the votes.

Read the whole thing!

--Tim Fernholz