There's lots of backroom maneuvering on Capitol Hill to decide who will sit on the so-called "super" committee.  That bipartisan group of twelve will be charged with finding a trillion and a half dollars in cuts over the next decade.  If they fail, automatic cuts split between defense and domestic spending will kick in. 

There's a lot at stake.  Lobbyists are moving quickly.  So just who should be on that committee?  A blogger at Forbes thinks at least half the members should be female:

http://blogs.forbes.com/shenegotiates/2011/08/05/the-congressional-super-committee-should-be-50-women/

What do you think?  Are women better at reaching concensus than men?

If you listen to the buzz in the nearly empty halls of Congress, there's likely to be one Californian on the so-called "super" committee: LA Democratic Congressman Xavier Becerra.  His name keeps cropping up in the "who should be on it" articles for two reasons: he's the number two guy in the Democratic caucus and he sits on the House Ways and Means Committee - the one that writes tax law.  And the big fight to come will be whether this "super" committee will find a way to cut enough spending without raising taxes.  Democrats want new revenue, Republicans say "no."

Reporters asked Democratic Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota if he had a dog in this fight and begged him to throw them a bone. The dog is named Dakota, by the way.

There were three California Republicans who voted against raising the debt ceiling - Tom McClintock, Devin Nunes, and Duncan Hunter.  And there were 13 California Democrats who voted for it - Karen Bass, Howard Berman, Lois Capps, Jim Costa, Susan Davis, Anna Eshoo, John Garamendi, Nancy Pelosi, Loretta Sanchez, Adam Schiff, Brad Sherman, Jackie Speier, and Mike Thompson.

One Californian didn't vote at all: Democrat Joe Baca of San Bernadino.  He was having reconstructive ankle surgery this morning in California.  He says if he was here, he would have cast a "yes" vote.

 

Here's my solution to the debt crisis: turn off the air conditioners.

It's REALLY hot.  Over 100 plus high humidity.  A heat advisory until 9 pm tonight.  It's one of the reasons Congress in the old days would leave town in August. 

But members don't have to experience the weather.  They arrive in the Capitol in air conditioned cars, spend the entire day in air conditioned offices or the extremely well air conditioned House floor, and head home to their air conditioned Capitol Hill digs.

Turn off the air conditioners.  Literally, let them sweat it out.  I guarantee ideologues on both sides will find common ground - ie: we're hot, let's go home - very quickly.