Same as the old dean....
"As clout fades, state delegation gets unity push; Rep. Neal, the next dean, stresses common interests" by Noah Bierman | Globe Staff , July 05, 2013
WASHINGTON — The clout of Massachusetts lawmakers may be near its lowest ebb. The state’s two senators have less combined seniority than any pair in the country. The House delegation, possibly the nation’s most liberal, holds even less sway within a chamber dominated by conservative Republicans.
Yet Representative Richard E. Neal, little known outside his base in Springfield, said he has a plan to protect the state’s interests in Congress as he prepares later this month to assume the role of delegation “dean,” a title given to the state’s longest tenured House member.
Neal, 64, vowed a return to the days of J. Joseph Moakley, the late South Boston Democrat known for enforcing unity in the delegation and consolidating the group’s power by guiding younger congressmen into key committee posts and meeting regularly to coordinate goals. Neal said the state’s economic drivers — health care, higher education, and technology — have to be the delegation’s shared priority....
Neal reads several newspapers, sitting at a table outside a Capitol Hill coffee shop every day where he often greets Speaker John Boehner, the Republican whom he befriended two decades ago when both men played in a nightly congressional basketball game....
Republicans said the delegation suffers from its strict adherence to Democratic Party dogma....
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UPDATE: The state’s lost clout in Washington
