As I had suspected, Sen. Jeff Sessions struck a deal with Chuck Grassley: Sessions will take Ranking Minority Chair on Judiciary for the remainder of the 111th Congress while Grassley will take over when his term as Ranking Chair on Finance runs out at the start of the 112th. This should please the conservative base, which is looking for a smart and stalwart figure to lead them in the upcoming confirmation fight. But in some sense this was a logical outcome that satisfies the GOP conference, the only group whose opinion on this issue matters.

The importance of the person in the Ranking Minority spot should not be overestimated. Republicans have fewer votes on the committee and they are operating in an atmosphere in which Obama’s picks will be treated deferentially by the media and political establishment. That said, Sessions is a skilled lawyer and former judge and knows how to construct an argument. Just as critical, he has taken a keen interest in the Obama administration’s Guantanamo planning and can be expected to turn up the heat should the president move ahead with plans to release detainees.