I guess Pity Pat will have to find something else to gripe about today (H/T – Helga)

Dodd to Remain Senate Banking Chairman
By COREY BOLES

WASHINGTON — Sen. Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.) is to remain as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, having decided not to take the gavel of the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee, according to two sources.

Dodd won’t succeed Kennedy as committee chairman
Washington Post
Updated: 09/08/2009 11:50:17 PM EDT

WASHINGTON — Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., has decided against succeeding his close friend and mentor, the late Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., as chairman of the Senate’s health committee, a senior Senate aide said Tuesday night.

Dodd has scheduled a Wednesday news conference for 11 a.m. to announce his decision. His aides did not respond to questions about the decision Tuesday evening.

While Kennedy battled brain cancer for 15 months, Dodd, Harkin and other Democrats on the committee divided up the chairman’s responsibilities, with Dodd overseeing the panel’s health-care legislation. When the Senate takes up that critical legislation later this year, Dodd is expected to continue being the public face of that committee’s effort, a decision that might give him a boost in a tough reelection battle in 2010.

By remaining as banking chairman, Dodd will now oversee a complex rewrite of the regulations overseeing the financial services industry.