There is plenty of speculation over who will be tapped to serve on the so-called “super committee” tasked with coming up with a deficit-reduction plan. The picks, which must be submitted by party leaders by Aug. 16, will include six Democrats and six Republicans. Over at the Washington Post, Paul Kane guesses who will be chosen, and he includes Montana Sen. Max Baucus on his short list of Senate Democrats.<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-debt-super-committee-who-will-serve-on-it/2011/08/08/gIQA9cdu2I_story.html" title=" From the Post:”> From the Post:
Frontrunners: Sens. Patty Murray (Wash.), Jack Reed (R.I.), Max Baucus (Mont.) and Kent Conrad (N.D.). Murray is the most natural choice for Reid; she has been in party leadership for more than four years, the highest-ranking woman in the Senate, and she is next in line to chair the Budget Committee. The only mark against her getting the nod is that her current leadership post — chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — is a political post and it might send the wrong signal by inserting the campaign chief in such a key policy spot. Baucus is chairman of the Finance Committee, with oversight of tax-and-entitlement policy, but he has been involved in debt negotiations over the summer. Reed is a senior member of the Banking Committee and regarded on both sides of the aisle as one of the chamber’s hardest workers.
UPDATE: Not everyone agrees …