They aren't wasting their time on Barton--just got this from John Kerry

[WI_DEM]

Hello Friend,

I just walked out of a meeting of the Democratic caucus in the Senate about comprehensive energy and climate legislation, and our Leader, Harry Reid, was more determined than ever to push ahead and make this the year we break our dependence on oil. He wants to make July the month we declare our energy independence.

But while we were meeting, here's what else was happening:

Texas Rep. Joe Barton - at a hearing covered nation-wide on live television - was saying that Congress and President Obama should appologize for securing $20 billion dollars in a trust fund to help the people of the Gulf. He called it a "shakedown." A shakedown!

Oh, and at the same time, a big conservative think-tank was holding a catered lunch on Capitol Hill to twist and distort the science and convince people nothing needs to be done because climate change is just some progressive conspiracy.

[GentryDixon]

1. What will it take

to get the American people behind this?

We will depend on oil as long as the MSM controls the message of the corporatists and their Republican & Blue Dog stooges. Even with the greatest environmental disaster known to mankind, money talks and nothing else matters to these folks.

[politicasista]

3. People to stop screaming at the Senator over not being a pure environmentalist

and call their Senators and encourage them to change their minds. But, wait! That's just too hard, so let's just complain how this bill is not perfect. And yes, we hate Lieberman too.


That's what a lot of so-called environmentalists and people here are saying.
"Each person must live their life as a model for others. "--Rosa Parks

[GentryDixon]

5. I am in a real pickle

because Hatch & Bennett are my Senators. Maybe Bennett will support it after the Utah Republican party threw him under the bus, but never Hatch. I have already gone that round with Hatch. "Thank you for writing, Republican talking points, blah, blah blah". You get the drift.

[politicasista]

6. Sure do

Alexander and Corker are my Senators and after an historic natural disaster, the next governor of Tennessee may be a Republican. (The Birthers and Teabaggers here are :scared:)

We feel your pain.

[Teaser]

7. "Reiding" Kerry's tea leaves

and the fate of his bill looks precarious.

"Harry Reid, was more determined than ever to push ahead and make this the year we break our dependence on oil."

I notice that Harry Reid wasn't similarly jazzed about instituting hard limits on carbon dioxide emissions.

I don't blame Kerry, he tried. But the evil fucking Senate won't have it.

After them, the flood.

[ProSense]

9. Reid better not screw this up.

Even Lieberman recognizes that this is a once in a generation opportunity:

"The president is not asking that the Congress pass another ordinary energy bill as we've done twice in the last five years, that hasn't really changed our dependence on foreign oil or on fossil fuel generally," Lieberman told reporters. "He's asking for something so big that he compared it to the mobilization for World War Two and the moonshot program."

link

[Teaser]

10. He's going to screw it up

It's what he does.

I empathize with Obama. I don't think he's played this issue as well as he could, mostly because he spent so much capital on the health care fight (again because the Senate requires its tithes and offerings). Obama's biggest mistake, with respect to climate, was doing health care first. That said, if he'd done climate first, health care would be screwed.

The only hope I have at this point is that somehow the EPA regs will resist court and Senate challenges to them, and do the trick. but they only last as long as we don't have a Repub president.

We are so screwed.

[politicasista]

11. Yep. He tried

Unfortunately, DUers seems to want to give Senators a pass on this hoping that this issue (and Obama) fail.

[politicasista]

2. Interesting n/t

[SunsetDreams]

4. K&R

[Cha]

8. The republicons built the trap and stepped into

with their eyes wide open.