In an already challenging election year for the majority, Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) rush to pass a climate change bill has many Democrats scratching their heads and charging that their 2004 presidential nominee could further imperil vulnerable Members this fall.Unfortunately at least one Republican, Lindsay Graham, is working with Kerry on this, thus making it "bipartisan". That won't be enough to pass it, though:
Climate change had been considered all but dead this year, and Senate Democrats have little appetite to take up the controversial issue after the beating that they have endured over their as-yet-unfinished health care reform efforts.
“The United States Senate is not going to transition from doing health care to a [global warming] bill,” one Democratic Senator said. “It’s not going to happen.”
But that’s not what Kerry believes. He said last week that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is “determined to bring it to the floor.”
Though Kerry has argued he has new momentum for a global warming bill given his collaboration with Lieberman and Graham — Kerry previously co-authored the bill that passed Boxer’s committee last fall — Democrats of all stripes said the political risks of taking up such an explosive issue are too great.I don't know what Graham is thinking. He's completely ignoring the ClimateGate info that debunked global warming and is pressing ahead with a guaranteed job killer in the form of cap-and-tax. No wonder so many conservatives don't trust him.
“It is laughable if Kerry and Boxer think Senate Republicans are going to pass a major environmental bill and have [President Barack] Obama sign it right before the midterm elections,” one Senate Democratic source said. “They make Don Quixote look like a realist.”
Indeed, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (Texas) said doing climate change would “absolutely” be a gift to the GOP in an election year in which they already feel they are riding a tide of angry voter sentiment against Democrats.
“It would be, I think, further gasoline on the fire,” he said.
Cornyn added that Graham’s bipartisan stamp would not stop him from branding the issue a “job-killer.”
“I just hope Sen. Graham doesn’t provide cover for a really bad idea,” he said.
In days of old he probably could have counted on good friend John McCain to side with him, but not this year. McCain has a re-election battle in Arizona and I doubt the senator wants to give people another reason to vote against him.
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Lindsay Graham is one of those political figures that I've liked. I really admired the way he took Holder to the woodshed over the trial of KSM.
Now he's talking a deal -- if KSM gets a military tribunal he'll support the closing of Gitmo? What is with that??
And now climate change? What am I not getting? You know, I used to think that Tom Daschle was a good guy too. Since then I've learned that he's one of the engines behind rationing of medical care.
I'm beginning to serious doubt my ability to judge character. Is there a group for disillusioned "moderates" to get help? I'm thinking maybe I'm judgementally-challenged.
I realize the GOP is composed of human beings (not as sure about the Dems, some of whom seem like they might be from other planets) and I understand that we're not talking about or even looking for perfection here. But what is it about "partisanship" that Graham doesn't get?
There was a time when partisanship was a good thing. That ain't now. And that especially ain't a virtue when the topic is bogus science.
I just don't get it. Not at all.
There was a great article in last Sunday's OC Register written by Henry I. Miller, "We Can Adapt to Climate."
A must read.
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