Pelosi supports Waxman bid to dump Dingell from the Energy Committee!
Yay for Henry!
Democrats leadership stayed mum on the fight, with spokesmen for Speaker Nancy Pelosi... declining to comment.
Well, duh.
The media presents this as Pelosi mum, etc, but look at how she has tried to remove him:
- She had supported a primary challenger to Dingell a couple years ago, and:
- Last year she appointed pro-science Markey (D-MA) to run a new special select committee on climate change to try an end run around the dingellosaurus.
That year, Pelosi, backed by Waxman, clashed with Dingell over the regulation of vehicle emissions, with Dingell seeking to protect the auto industry from new layers of regulation at the state level, and conflicts are certain next year when a major global warming bill is expected to move through Dingell’s committee.
So, silly media: that is just what she is saying publicly, but Pelosi would obviously prefer Waxman:
The House under her leadership has repeatedly passed good solid climate legislation, for instance even that tiny bicycle tax credit alone had passed the House 7 times before finally sneaking past the Rethug ogres in the Senate (by being tucked into the Bailout bill.)To say nothing of her fully oiligarchy-funded $13 billion for renewable energy provisions.
It is hardly the House Speakers fault that the Senate could not hurdle the 60 cloture-filibustering Republicans on all our climate measures. She has gotten some amazing legislation through the house.
Why wouldn't she prefer Waxman whose Safe Climate Act mirrors the best from the Senate: Boxer/Sanders:
...over the guy that Move-On aptly characterised as the Dingellosaurus for his protection of the auto industry.
That coddling is now killing Detroit, anyway.
I have to admit, I used to take some schadenfreud-ey kind of satisfaction in headlines like SUVs Drop $8,000 Of Resale Value In Last Six Months! but...
..but now the situation has become so dire that GM for instance might not even make it to 2010 to get out the Volt, despite a desperate last ditch attempt.
"We will need the very best leadership in Congress and our committees to succeed. That is why after long thought I have decided to seek the chairmanship of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. Enacting comprehensive energy, climate, and health care reform will not be easy."
Exactly. What Henry says.
Waxman ripped Dingell as practicing "business as usual" and protecting special interests, and questioned why he would back a policy that a minority of Democrats supported.
"Democratic chairmen should be getting their votes from Democrats and some Republicans," Waxman said at the time, "not Republicans and some Democrats."
Both Markey and Waxman have advanced principles for legislation, but any bill would have to get through the Energy and Commerce Committee currently guarded by Detroit's man.
The Energy and Commerce Committee could assert jurisdiction over major portions of Obama’s agenda — health care, alternative energy, climate change and even restoring stability to financial systems. On many of these issues, Pelosi is more closely aligned ideologically with Waxman than with Dingell, and clearly Waxman is seen as an ally of the Speaker while Dingell is not.
According to Joe Romm on his blog this morning
Jerry Dodson, a former Waxman aide, said that it is not like Waxman to make such a move if he does not have support from within the party caucus. "He usually doesn’t take these things on if he doesn’t have the votes," said Dodson, a San Francisco attorney who worked for Waxman from 1978 to 1988 when the lawmaker chaired the House Environment and Public Health Subcommittee.
Besides, really, now that the End Of An Error has finally come, how much could Waxman really do over in that Oversight Committee anyway?
Any fool could run that committee for a Democratic administration.