Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s recent announcement that the Senate will not take up a comprehensive energy and climate bill this year is the inevitable result of Reid and President Obama failing to lead on the issue and squandering one opportunity after another.
In what might be described as the “audacity of nope,” the White House bristled at criticism that the president had not been engaged enough in the effort and lashed out at the environmental community. An administration official complained that environmental groups “spent like $100 million and weren’t able to get a single Republican convert on the bill.”
What bill would that be? The sad reality is that neither the President nor the Majority Leader ever got behind any specific approach or piece of legislation.
The White House is lamely blaming lobbyists for not doing the president’s job of specifying what he wants and securing votes to drive his proposal to passage. Ronald Reagan would shake his head.
For his part, Reid focused his ire on Republicans. In a statement, he claimed to want a comprehensive bill but said, “Unfortunately, at this time not one Republican wants to join us in achieving this goal.”
Reid should review his office’s news clippings.
In April, as Senators John Kerry (D-MA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) were about to unveil their bi-partisan bill, Reid blindsided the trio by suggesting that he wanted to put climate on hold and move immigration reform to the top of the agenda.
Graham, who was also putting together an immigration reform bill for next year with Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY), saw that Reid and the White House were playing political games and withdrew from the climate effort.
Another Republican, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, is co-sponsor of a bipartisan cap-and-dividend climate bill with Maria Cantwell (D-WA).
Neither of these bills had clear support from President Obama and Senator Reid. Neither Obama nor Reid has said much of anything about the Collins-Cantwell bill, the only bipartisan bill in the hopper.
Instead of getting behind a specific bill, Obama and Reid spoke in generalities and stood on the sideline with their fingers in the air trying to gauge which way the wind was blowing. Reid would tell bill sponsors that he would allow a vote on their proposal only if they brought him 60 votes.
What kind of leadership is that?
They have also been woefully indecisive about whether to even tackle the climate issue, letting everything from healthcare to financial reform leap ahead of it on the schedule.
All of this prevented the Democrat caucus from being unified on an energy and climate strategy. Instead of rallying around the President to solve big national and global problems, Democrats in the Senate were undisciplined in both purpose and message.
While it is certainly true that most Republicans remain opposed to putting a price on carbon pollution, the assertion that there are no Republicans willing to work constructively to pass a climate bill is not.
Much of the blame for failing to pass comprehensive climate and energy legislation properly rests with a risk-averse President and Majority Leader whose feckless “leadership” never gave it a chance.
msmilack // Jul 26, 2010 at 11:53 am
I don’t know how the Democrats can be blamed for failing at anything when the Republicans are the obvious culprits.
LFC // Jul 26, 2010 at 12:25 pm
Republicans have stalled, blocked, or attempted to block virtually every piece of legislation the Dems have brought forth. Just as their supposed health care bill ended up actually being empty pages, so have all their supposed proposals. They showed themselves of being incapable of governing competently, and they’ve proposed nothing that changes that fact.
I do find it funny, however, that despite the fact that Senate Republicans have voted in near lockstep against everything, and that they’ve tripled the use of the filibuster from its previous all-time high (and seem to be on track this year of possibly breaking that record), they still want to blame gridlock on Obama and the Dems? “Waaaah! I would have voted for health care but Nancy Pelosi refused to pleasure me without any chance for debate!”
When did being Republican become synonymous with never having to take responsibility?
msmilack // Jul 26, 2010 at 12:31 pm
LFC // Jul 26, 2010 at 12:25 pm
You wrote: “When did being Republican become synonymous with never having to take responsibility?”
Answer: when Obama won the election by a large number; when the GOP lost the House and the Senate; and when as a result, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner (I don’t know who else was involved) made the decision to replace strategy with tactics, to replace governing with winning, to replace policy with politics and to vote “no” across the board on everything.
JJWFromME // Jul 26, 2010 at 12:46 pm
This graph says it all:
http://apture.s3.amazonaws.com/00000129f64171db8c5f265b007f000000000001.yearly_graph.jpg
(From:)
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/07/research_desk_graphs_more_fili.html
Claude // Jul 26, 2010 at 1:41 pm
One of the arguments put forth for a carbon cap is that a failure to do so would hurt the U.S.’s standing in the world. The rest of world was convinced that human-caused global warming was taking place, and they wanted quick and strong action to cap carbon emissions. If the U.S. refused to participate, we would have trouble achieving anything that required international cooperation.
That argument suffered a big blow when President Obama could not convince China and India to cap their carbon emissions. The Senate faced the prospect of passing cap-and-trade, and then watching factories in the U.S. close down because of higher energy prices while factories in China and India revved up production. It would have hurt the U.S. economy without doing anything to help global warming.
To make a cap on carbon emissions work, you’ve got to have the entire industrialized world participating. That is admittedly a tough task, and the Obama Administration couldn’t pull it off. It’s the failure to persuade China and India, not the opposition of Republicans, that doomed cap-and-trade.
JJWFromME // Jul 26, 2010 at 1:52 pm
That argument suffered a big blow when President Obama could not convince China and India to cap their carbon emissions.
That’s an especially hard negotiation since we’ve been polluting for a lot longer.
We’re supposed to be a city on a hill–a leader, not a follower. The sooner we incentivize and develop the technology, for us and the rest of the world, the better.
Also, surely if we don’t curb our emissions, expect to see significant tariffs on our products, and probably trade wars (although there will probably be a lot of other things to worry about as well, this is just one example).
JJWFromME // Jul 26, 2010 at 2:07 pm
Also, China has considerable interests at stake:
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100713/full/466308a.html
LFC // Jul 26, 2010 at 2:15 pm
JJWFromME, looks like it’s time for China to put some serious research cash into desalination.
JJWFromME // Jul 26, 2010 at 2:19 pm
India has an interest as well:
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50014
anniemargret // Jul 26, 2010 at 3:00 pm
The only way this country is going to wake up is when other nations lead the pack and we are left wiping the dust from our collective eyes. After all, you got Limbaugh and the other right wing talking heads still mocking climate change, as if they all have Ph.Ds in atmospheric science.
The GOP will never admit to climate change or renewable green energy for this nation. It will be up to the Democrats to insist on leading the way, however formidable the road is towards it.
Remember – it wasn’t until Russia put Yuri Gagarin into space that Kennedy inspired Americans with the ‘first on the moon’ space race. Republicans are like ostriches…they still got their heads in the sands. We need progressives in DC from here on in.
LFC // Jul 26, 2010 at 5:18 pm
After all, you got Limbaugh and the other right wing talking heads still mocking climate change, as if they all have Ph.Ds in atmospheric science.
Well, if by PhD you mean Pin Headed Dufus, then Limbaugh, Beck, Palin, Levin, etc. all certainly qualify. And judging from their shticks, they appear to be passing on their lack of knowledge to others quite fervently.
Oldskool // Jul 26, 2010 at 5:35 pm
Considering all the major pieces of legislation passed in his first 18 months, it’s better than we’ve seen in decades.
Rabiner // Jul 26, 2010 at 5:42 pm
The Author fails to mention why this occurred in his article:
“In April, as Senators John Kerry (D-MA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) were about to unveil their bi-partisan bill, Reid blindsided the trio by suggesting that he wanted to put climate on hold and move immigration reform to the top of the agenda.”
It wasn’t Reid who put immigration at the top of the agenda, it was Arizona passing a ridiculous law that did that for him. Also you mention 2 bipartisan bills that only have 1 Republican co-sponsor but zero leadership support from Republicans.