Today at Grist, Senator John Kerry talked about what we're going to be talking about for a while, the American Power Act. Here's an excerpt:
We need to take a deep dive together on the Senate strategy, and on the real details of the bill that make it important for the things you and I care about. So, I hope I bring something new to that discussion that we can use as a jumping-off point.
First, the Senate dynamic -- the politics of this place. I want to be candid about this, and I do so with a record on this issue that I think earned me the spurs to say this. We've been at this a long time. Al Gore and I held the Senate's first climate-change hearings in the Commerce Committee way back in 1988. Since then, precious little progress has been made and ground has been lost internationally, all while the science has grown more compelling.
I can barely even count any more the number of international summits I've attended, or press conferences we've held after losing climate-change votes in the Senate where our message was, "Next year, we can get this done -- don't give up on the United States or the Senate." Two Congresses ago, we had 38 votes for a bill. Last Congress, we had 54 votes for cloture out of 60 needed -- and we said then -- me, Joe, Barbara Boxer [D-Calif.] -- that this Congress we could get to 60 and pass a bill.
So what have we done? A lot of meeting and listening -- between me, Joe Lieberman, and Lindsey Graham [R-S.C.], hundreds of meetings one-on-one with our colleagues to find out what they needed to support a bill. And I absolutely believe we're closer than ever to getting across the finish line -- but make no mistake, it remains difficult, even with President Obama in the White House, and even with the House of Representatives having passed their bill by the slimmest of margins last summer. But we're going full-steam ahead because, in my judgment, this may be the last and certainly the best chance for the Senate to act, especially with the fact that I think the next Senate -- given a 2012 presidential campaign added to the dynamic and a lot of new senators -- is going to be less likely than this one to find a path to the 60 votes needed for passage. So we've got to get it done this year.
Hear me out on this one -- you know where I've been and continue to be on all the major environmental fights since even before I became a senator. As a lieutenant governor, I focused on acid rain and we laid the groundwork for the successful fight on the Clean Air Act in 1990, with the support of the first President Bush and bipartisan support from Congress. In stark contrast to that effort to find a bipartisan way forward, I led the successful filibuster -- against the urging of many in our Democratic caucus -- to defeat the second President Bush's plan to drill in and destroy the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. I point to these twin examples because I think they're evidence that I know when to dig in and fight, and I also know when and how to find the path to getting something done across the aisle.
And here's what I can tell you: A comprehensive climate bill written purely for you and me -- true believers -- can't pass the Senate no matter how hard or passionately I fight on it. No, it's got to be an effort that makes my colleagues -- and that has to include Republicans so we can get to 60 -- comfortable about the jobs we're going to create and the protection for consumers and the national security benefits -- and it has to address those pieces on their terms. The good news: I think we got that balance right.
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2007:
Poor Rudy. His flip-flops on the abortion question to appease the religious right in his party (and they all do it, from Romney to McCain to Bush 41 to Reagan) have gotten him in a bit of hot water with his adoring public.