Waxman Challenges Dingell
Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman has been coveting Energy Committee Chairman John Dingell's job for, well, decades. But never before has Waxman so directly challenged Dingell – who has sat atop the committee for 28 years – so directly.
It's hard to believe Waxman would make this bid without the support of Speaker Pelosi, a fellow Californian who tried quasi-successfully, to do an end run of her own around Dingell when she created the Special Committee on Global Warming – an issue that normally falls within the purview of the Detroit-loving Dingell's committee.
While Obama hasn't weighed in yet on the challenge, it's interesting to note that his top congressional liaison is Phil Schiliro, until recently Waxman's long-time chief-of-staff. Obama's ambitious Green Jobs program -- a top priority -- is inline with the bill Dingell dropped last month that proposes reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. But environmentalists accuse Dingell of protecting the big three automakers at the expense of higher fuel economy standards and some liberal Dems say he would stand in the way of the kind of sweeping legislation Obama is envisioning. As Marty Nesbitt, one of Obama's best friends, once told me, when the president-elect finds someone isn't playing up to his game on the basketball court he doesn't pitch a fit or yell. “He strategically figures out how not to get you the ball without hurting your feelings,” Nesbitt said.
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Well with the big three being so weakened by their own economic woes this would defintely be the time to move Dingell out of the way.
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Again we see how the confusion between personalities and policies renders all my previous complaints about vapid journalism strangely irrelevant....
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JNS - nice story about Obama at the end.
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I think Dingell is just a wee bit more bombastic than Waxman, so my inclination would be to prefer Waxman. But I really don't know anything about their qualifications. -
As a Michigander, much of my time lately has been spent saying goodbye to friends and neighbors. Sadly, much of the current crisis could have been avoided had we - the Big-3 and Washington DC - had had the guts to extend the CAFE requirements that expired in 1990, and contributed to the SUV craze of the past decade and a half. Unfortunately, Dingell has been part of the problem - time for new leadership.
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Grist has a good post on this:
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Dingell is a stooge of the auto industry, and therefore, hopelessly tied to fossil fuels. He killed the effort for CAFE standards, which really wasn't beneficial to the auto industry in the long run. He would oppose any green initiatives promoted by Obama. Better to get him out of the way. He's a dinosaur who's ruled by his special interests and that's it; a complete foe of progress.
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Already called my rep to support Waxman. I hope people really working toward real change does the same. These committee chairmanships are the key to shifting the status quo attitudes in Washington. Really need to put Obama allies in these key positions. -
As reported by TPM:
The Dingell whip team is being co-chaired by Reps. Chet Edwards (Texas), Mike Doyle (Pa.), and Bart Stupak (Mich.). Rounding out the list are:� Robert Andrews (N.J.)
� John Barrow (Ga.)
� Rick Boucher (Va.)
� Allen Boyd (Fla.)
� Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.)
� Charlie Gonzalez (Texas)
� Bart Gordon (Tenn.)
� Gene Green (Texas)
� Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (S.D.)
� Baron Hill (Ind.)
� Jesse Jackson Jr. (Ill.)
� Eddie Bernice Johnson (Texas)
� Jim Matheson (Utah)
� Charlie Melancon (La.)
� Gary Peters (Mich.)*
� Collin Peterson (Minn.)
� Mike Ross (Ark.)
� Bobby Rush (Ill.)
� Mark Schauer (Mich)*
� Heath Shuler (N.C.)
� John Tanner (Tenn.)
� Ellen Tauscher (Calif.)
� Edolphus Towns (N.Y.)*incoming freshman
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Goodmorning...
I know this post is not on subject, but the subject is boring. Who cares!
Local flavor news from Tampa Bay:
The dead tree Tampa Tribune which has shown a extreme move to the right (It was always a right leaning newspaper but now it is blantly so) has just let go of 18 more staff. Making a total of 73 cuts from the high of 265 in January. Interestingly enough they let go of their last left leaning columnist Daniel Ruth. They also wiped out editorial page editor Rosemary Goudreau. We can expect this rag to become a flame throwing right wing newspaper very soon.
The Tampa Tribune recently tried a redesign and included nearly everything into one section, local news, sports, national news, stocks, and business. The classified became home to comics. A two section newspaper whose main section was impossible to share and too large to comfortably hold. When everyone complained they separated out the sports, then finally the business got added to the back fo the sports- I guess they felt woman don't read the business news?
The changes have lost them a large number of subscribers.Weirdly since the election many morings they have had an article about black reaction to Obama's victory. There seems to almost always be (not today however the main news is Evan Longoria's Rookie of the Year award) a picture of black people on the front page. My wife noted this and thought they are trying to make the statement that blacks are the only one's who voted for Obama.
They are the same paper who made their letter of the day a reader who maintained William Ayers was a convicted terrorist and a bunch of other unsubstatiated charges. Between the move to the right and the redesign of the paper, they probably have about a year left before the St. Petersburg Times eats them for lunch.
I know this matters little to most Swamplanders however I wonder if we will see right leaning newspapers dying off before left leaning newspapers given the change in the political landscape.
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Why, Paul Dirks, is that a... compliment?
JNS -
JNS -- What is Dingell's response to this challenge? Who among his colleagues are his supporters? This process sounds like High School student council to me: "I'll vote for you if you vote for me."
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Dingell is out. Obama's green initiative is, arguably, the most important and risky component of his overall plan. He has faith that an investment in alt-energy ($150B over 10 yrs) will create new jobs, factories, patents and entire industries, thereby leading the economy out of its malaise. I imagine that the success of this plan will help define Obama's presidency. He cannot afford to have a chair of Energy and Commerce who is not completely on-board with the program.
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Thanks for the article JNS, well done.
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Thanks for the Grist JJ. -
Andy from MA: Dingell will fight for it. His spokesman tells me that he has a surprising number of progressives lined up behind him. But, obviously, they're worried.
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What a pleasure to have a President who knows how to play the game. Looks like he's a sharp as LBJ, but not anywhere near as brutal. We may even (*gasp*) see a Congress that starts to work again.
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Thanks JNS for interacting. My only knock on Waxman is that I feel he could have done more uncovering War profiteering. I believe there are a lot of contractors who reaped large profits by taking advantage of little congressional oversight.
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Dingell must be the Chairman of Energy and Commerce. Dingell has been a tireless advocate for our environment. His support of the Clean Water and Clean Air acts made is possible to protect the EPA in ways never done before. He has taken a measured track between business and environmental activists to make sure we make progress on Global Warming while securing American jobs. Ignoring the auto industry when discussion Global Warming hurts the environmental cause and jobs in America.
Besides the environment, Dingell has been a tireless advocate of expanding health care for Americans. We are so close to making Dingell's vision of an America where health care is available for all a reality. Replacing Dingell would be a huge mistake when our government is at this juncture.
Dingell gets stuff done. In the last congress Dingell held 174 hearings, passed 91 bills, and enacted 27 new laws ranging from health care to the environment. We need John Dingell.
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