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**Written by Doug Powers

John Kerry recently said that the media shouldn’t devote one bit of time to airing Tea Party opinions, so I’m skeptical about his willingness to work with Tea Party members — should any end up on the “super committee” that is:

Sen. Harry Reid has made his picks for the deficit super committee whose task it is to recommend with $1.5 trillion in federal spending cuts over 10 years — Senators John Kerry of Massachusetts, Patty Murray of Washington State and Max Baucus of Montana.

Several news outlets reported Tuesday afternoon that they learned the names from Democratic sources. The committee will have 12 members, three more named by Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, and six named by House Republicans and Democrats.

Passing thought: Isn’t the term “super committee” an oxymoron, especially in this context?

In any case, good luck getting Patty Murray to budge on entitlements heading into 2012:

By choosing Murray, who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee that will be trying to defend the 23 Senate seats currently held by Democrats, Reid ensures that whatever recommendation his people agree to will be deeply informed by the Democrats’ desire to hold onto their slim majority.

Maybe the whole idea is to choose people who cannot or will not reach an agreement, because it’s becoming known that the automatic spending cut trigger that would supposedly kick in if a deal can’t be made may well only fire blanks.

Who will Mitch McConnell’s three Republican Senate picks be? If one of them is Scott Brown, I’m folding up the big tent and heading home already.

Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi is calling for all Super Committee meetings to be open to the public, available for viewing online, and completely transparent. It seems like only yesterday the new Queen of Transparency was saying things like “we’ve got to pass it to find out what’s in it.” What’s she got up her sleeve?

Update: Mitch McConnell is reportedly very close to naming the Republican Senate members of the “super committee,” but it isn’t a good sign that he’s calling on them to be open to compromise before negotiations even start:

**Written by Doug Powers

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