frontpage : house/senate chart on your desk

FrontPage: House/Senate chart on your desk.

Last Word: Read/OL 5.4 for Monday; in Library tomorrow

Some Guy Threw 4,800 Messages in a Bottle Into the Atlantic Ocean and Got 3,100 Responses from All Over the World

Harold Hackett's hobby, tossing messages in a bottle into the ocean, proves that even the most outdated and unreliable form of 'social networking' can still work in our facebooking, twittering world. He sent 4,800 messages via the Atlantic and received over 3,000 messages back from all over the world.

In the House

Leadership and Debate in the House of Representatives

Most important and powerful leader of the House? The Speaker of the

House… John Boehner (R – OH)

How is he selected? Serves for 2 years,

usually more than once… What are the jobs that

the Speaker of the House performs?

Other Leaders…

Majority leader: 2nd highest position

Eric Cantor (R – VA) What major jobs does the

Majority leader perform in the House?

Other Leaders… Minority Leader

Most powerful leader of minority party

Nancy Pelosi (D – CA)

Leader of the “loyal opposition” in the House… What does this mean?

The Senate

Leadership and Debate in the “Cool” Senate…

The President of the Senate

Which person does the Constitution appoint as the President (presiding officer) of the Senate? VP Biden is rarely there…why?

Besides rarely attending, what reasons can you think of to explain why the VP has very little power in the Senate?What is the only

real Senatorial power given to the VP by the Constitution?

The Usual Presiding Officer

While the VP is away (almost all the time), what position/person has the job of presiding over the Senate?

What is usually taken into account when selecting the Pro-Temp. How does he get to be

the Pro Temp?Currently: Daniel Inouye(D - HI)

The Most Powerful Leader? Since the Pro-Temp is only a

“temporary leader”, and the VP is never there, another person in the Senate really has the most power…

Which position do you think might be the most powerful?

Senate Majority Leader This is the most

powerful position in the Senate

Jobs/duties are the same as in the House But due to the

Senate’s lack of a permanent speaker, this person is the most powerful member.Harry Reid (D – NV)

Senate Minority Leader Basically the

same position as in the House…

Mitch McConnell (R – KY)