Waxman-Markey

This is now 3-day-old news, but I have had no chance to comment via the blog due to extreme busyness with 4 overlapping courses. Of course, by this point, everyone knows that Cap & Trade squeaked by in the House, 219-212. Eight Republicans voted for it, with 44 Democrats voting against. I was all prepared to congratulate the Democrats who stood on principle until I found out from Dick Morris that a number of them begged Pelosi to let them vote "No" since she knew she had the votes she needed for passage. Still, I am quite sure that some Democrats never planned to vote for it anyway, so I trust that Indiana's own Joe Donnelly, Pete Visclosky (from Lake County, up by Chicago, which really surprised me) and Brad Ellsworth voted "No" out of conviction that Waxman-Markey (the Cap & Trade bill, named for its sponsors, Henry Waxman from California and Ed Markey from Massachusetts) was deeply flawed.

Andre Carson, Indianapolis' Congressman, did not surprise me, let's just say, in his support of this bill. Baron Hill, on the other hand, comes from the Bloomington district and should know better, but then again, the home town of Indiana University has become a liberal enclave. I'd love to sign up to help Mike Sodrel defeat him next year.

Waxman-Markey now goes to the Senate, where I believe it has a good chance of languishing and eventually, suffering a richly deserved demise. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, has already voiced significant concerns about it, and I can't believe that Montana's two Democrat Senators, Jon Tester and Max Baucus, or Ben Nelson of Nebraska are thrilled about it, either. I have no idea about Bob Casey of Pennsylvania. We shall see.

I must say how proud I was of House Minority Leader John Boehner, for making an hourlong speech on the House floor on Friday evening, denouncing the slippery tactics of the majority in forcing a vote on yet another 1,000+ page bill, with a 300+ page amendment squeezed in at the last minute by Waxman. Waxman tried to interrupt Boehner at one point, spluttering about how maybe Boehner was going on a bit long when they needed to vote; Boehner let him have it, with the rejoinder that the effects of this bill would be felt for years, so perhaps it was appropriate to discuss it for a few hours.

In the end, we lost, but we fought a good fight, and I believe we will win the war.