Chris Dodd

When Sen. Ted Kennedy received his grim diagnosis of a brain tumor last May, Sen. Barbara Mikulski promised to be "ringside" for anything he needed. Turned out he needed an extra hand in the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which he chairs and Democratic Senators Chris Dodd, Tom Harkin and Mikulski are next in seniority.

With Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) undergoing surgery today and spending the week in recovery, his Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee colleagues Barbara Mikulski and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) will help shepherd bills on mental health parity and higher education.

"Senator Kennedy turned to them because he didn't want his absence to slow progress just as these bills are nearing completion,” a Kennedy aide told The Hill last week.

With major business pending before it, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) chairs will need someone to take the reins during his medical absence.

But because it is customary that a senator chair no more than one committee at a time, Politico reports that the chairmanship may very well fall to fourth-in-line member, U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Baltimore).

A conference committee on an overhaul of the Higher Education Act is currently postponed, while a bill on electronic medical records is nearing completion.

The second and third majority members of the committee, Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chair the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, respectively.

Mikulski would likely keep her seat on the Appropriations Committee as well.

What is Ben Cardin doing?

We've said it before that Maryland's junior Senator really has no other choice than to endorse Sen. Barack Obama, and do it soon. But he's still equivocating.

A glance at who filed with the State Board of Elections today:

• Rep. John Sarbanes filed in his first bid for re-election in the 3rd District.
• U.S. Senators Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd and former Senator John Edwards filed for the Democratic nomination for president.
• Former Governors Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, U.S. Senator John McCain, Rep. Duncan Hunter and finally Montgomery County resident Alan Keyes filed for the Republican nomination for president.