Waxman Wins Round One
Rep. Henry Waxman won a round in his quest to chair the House Energy and Commerce Committee as the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee recommended that he chair it. The issue is destined to go to the full caucus for a vote, since this is too important to be handled at this level, but for the challenger any kind of win can help build momentum.
As is always the case with congressional politics, the calculus facing individual members is very complicated. But to an outsider observer, it’s pretty clear that Waxman is a serious environmentalist who’s really committed to tackling the climate change issue. John Dingell isn’t a villain, and one gets the sense he’s really doing his best at this point to try to square the needs of the environment with the needs of the Michigan-based auto industry, but he hasn’t actually found a satisfactory way to do it.
30 Responses to “Waxman Wins Round One”
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November 19th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
One suggestion I have is to separate the economic/health care section of the committee from the environmental committee.
Dingell, son of the legendary John Dingell of the Wagner-Murray-Dingell Bill, I would argue is better on health care and economic issues (not having to do with cars) than Waxman, who’s great on environment/energy, but not always great on economic issues (I’m thinking about his opposition to subway expansion in LA).
November 19th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
John Dingell might be a nice guy and a smart fellow, but it is patently ridiculous for a Michigan Congressman to think that, given the anti-environmentalist bent of the Big Three, he will support real positive climate change legislation. Oust this guy – you know Waxman can do the job – he’s a bulldog. After 8 years of Bush and the anti-environment initiatives he and his Republican lackeys in Congress have pushed, it’s time to give power to someone who actually cares about the environment and is willing to step on some toes to make progress…
November 19th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
but he hasn’t actually found a satisfactory way to do it.
Much in the same way that I haven’t actually found a satisfactory way to make “up” become “down.”
November 19th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Interesting in that California, of course, has sued Detroit over emissions. But then again, we have as Homeland Security chairman the most militaristic Democrat in Congress so I’m not so sure the meaning of such appointments.
November 19th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
@edsbowlingshoe, I could not agree more. Waxman is a dedicated, persistent, relentless workhorse. Now that the doors are open to get things done, we need the guys who are most capable of capitalizing on the situation.
Fingers crossed for Waxman.
November 19th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Waxman is a dedicated, persistent, relentless workhorse.
And good looking, too!
November 19th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
John Dingell isn’t a villain
Sure he is. If he’s “really doing his best at this point to try to square the needs of the environment with the needs of the Michigan-based auto industry,” then Dick Cheney has been doing his best to square the needs of civil libertarians with the needs of the industrial warfare and torture industry.
November 19th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
If Waxman gets this committee chair, who gets his current one? It would be way cool if it was Dennis Kucinich.
November 19th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
When Waxman killed the LA subway he was just doing the bidding of his Beverly Hills constituents. Similarly, Dingell has always done the bidding of the major players in his district. The only difference is CAFE standards are a national interest whereas the subway was only a metro LA issue.
I want Dingell out of the chairmanship as well but there is no need to villify the man for representing his district.
I believe his lifetime LCV score is over 90% as are his scores from most other liberal interset groups. He needs to ‘take one for the team’ but so do all the farmbelt pro-ethanol Congress members.
November 20th, 2008 at 10:18 am
I prefer Waxman in this case. But always remember and never forget that in the 80s, in response to racist west side NIMBYs, Waxman led the charge against the Wilshire Boulevard subway and ensured its demise by authoring and enacting a federal law that essentially forbade its construction. Twenty years later, with Wilshire Boulevard gridlocked and most of the west side of LA a transit desert, everyone now sees the sheer folly of not building the Wilshire Boulevard subway. Even the Beverly Hills City Council, which twenty years ago was vehemently anti-subway, has endorsed the “subway to the sea.” Last year, Waxman agreed to repeal the anti-subway provision he authored. But the damage is done and twenty years on, the cost of building that subway line has ballooned. The point of this story: can someone who fought against a much-needed subway line in a city that is choked with traffic and suffers from terrible air quality really be called an “environmentalist?”
November 20th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
God, he’s so ugly.
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