Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse – What Richard Shelby's committee chairmanship means for Alabama

  In my book, “Of Goats and Governors: Six Decades of Alabama Political Stories,” I suggest that based on seniority, tenure, power, and prestige that Alabama’s greatest senators have been Lister Hill, John Sparkman, and Richard Shelby.

  Folks, Richard Shelby has probably risen to the front of that triumvirate with his elevation in April to the chairmanship of the Senate Appropriations Committee. 

  The Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee makes the ultimate decision about how every federal dollar is spent. Alabama has never had a U.S. Senate Appropriations Chairman in our 200-year history.