Capitol Catchall: Committee appointments, Peterson’s ‘puters, Klobuchar on DTV

With the 111th Congress getting under way, here’s a catchall of news on Minnesota’s House and Senate delegations — from committee appointments to Collin Peterson’s new computers, Ellison on Islam to Norm Coleman’s bubblewrap.

It’s ‘puters for Peterson! As the “tech-savviest administration [in] history” gets started, word arrives that the U.S. Department of Agriculture, apparently still running some kind of “Gilligan’s Island”-style IT operation, is getting a hefty $250 million to upgrade its computer systems. House Agriculture Chair Rep. Collin Peterson had asked for $300 in economic stimulus funds for the job, based on an estimate from private consultants.

Freshman Rep. Erik Paulsen got his first committee assignment, and given the current financial crisis, it’s one that might generate some headlines: He’ll be joining Michele Bachmann and Keith Ellison on the House Financial Services Committee. Rep. Betty McCollum will be dealing with similar issues. Of her spot on the House Committee on the Budget, she said today, “Cleaning up the enormous fiscal mess the Bush Administration has left America is not a job I asked for, but it is the job I’ve been asked to do.” Ellison was appointed on Friday to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Ellison, as the first Muslim in Congress, continues to be the go-to guy on all things Islamic. Most recently, he was asked about President Obama’s outreach to Muslims in his inaugural address. He said he believes Obama’s words — that “we seek a new way forward [with the Muslim world], based on mutual interest and mutual respect” — could undermine recruiting for al-Qaeda. “Their message depends on trying to demonize the United States as a country that is somehow hostile to Islam and the Muslim world,” he said.

In other committee assignments, Sen. Amy Klobuchar will serve on the Judiciary Committee. In a press release, she said that as the only senator on both the Judiciary and Commerce committees, she’ll be uniquely situated “at the intersection of American business, law and commerce.”

On Friday, Klobuchar introduced a bill to delay the switchover to digital television, currently set for Feb. 17, until Jun. 12. More than 21 percent of Minnesota households rely on broadcast TV only, she said, echoing the sentiment of the bill’s Iowa co-sponsor, Sen. Tom Harkin, who said the delay will allow “those living in rural communities, the poor, the elderly, the disabled and those with language barriers to better make the transition.”

Former Sen. Norm Coleman, who’s reportedly speaking today at an anti-abortion rally at the Capitol in St. Paul, may have gotten a new job — as a paid consultant for the Republican Jewish Coalition — but he’s still fighting mightily to get his old one back. Today, his attorneys argued that 11,000 or so rejected ballots, all of which have been looked over twice, should be reviewed by the three-judge panel currently hearing their election contest. Coleman, whose office was reportedly strewn with boxes and bubblewrap yesterday, hopes to move back into his just-vacated digs. “We have to pack up an office and place it somewhere with the hope and expectation that we’re going to unpack it,” he told the Weekly Standard today. “We’re in this purgatory, this in-between place right now.”

Photo: Wikimedia