Joe Conason: Lincoln scorns Clinton's pleas to save planet

[babylonsister]

Lincoln scorns Clinton's pleas to save planet
Rescued by Bill Clinton's support, the Arkansas Democrat votes with Big Oil against carbon regulation -- and him
By Joe Conason


Other than Al Gore – or perhaps Barack Obama – there are few major American politicians who speak out more passionately about global warming and the need to change our civilization’s energy economy than Bill Clinton. His concern dates back before the unanimous rejection of the first Kyoto treaty by the U.S. Senate – which he had endorsed as president -- and he has devoted the resources of the Clinton Foundation to reducing carbon emissions and saving forests around the world.

Which raises profound questions about Clinton's dogged campaigning for Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., whose comeback victory in a bitter primary last Tuesday was attributed to his support. Today, Lincoln rewarded him by joining with Republicans in a landmark vote to block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases. Indeed, Lincoln was one of three conservative Democratic senators (along with Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Ben Nelson of Nebraska) to co-sponsor the resolution authored by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.

Widely regarded as a blatant and mindless political attack on science, the Murkowski-Lincoln resolution is also a rebuke to Clinton and everyone who shares his view that climate change is the most important challenge facing the world in this century. The former president has repeatedly urged Senate Democrats to pass serious cap-and-trade or carbon tax legislation by whatever means necessary, including the now-controversial method of reconciliation. He often speaks in apocalyptic terms on the topic, as he did last year when he said that "Congress must pass, and the president must sign, legislation that puts a price on carbon and establishes a cap and trade system ... properly pricing something that is otherwise going to destroy the planet."

Whatever he and Lincoln discussed before he went into Arkansas on her behalf, she evidently has not gotten his fervent message on climate. While her assumption of the chairmanship of the Senate Agriculture Committee in 2009 was a victory for their home state, it was a debacle for environmental progress, especially on climate policy, because she simply doesn’t "get it" on energy, farming and climate. She is a mediocre senator overall, but on these critical issues she is a horror show.

more...

http://www.salon.com/news/blanche_lincoln/index.html?story=/opinion/conason/2010/06/10/blanche

[napi21]

1. Well, I wonder if Clinton & Obama learned anything? Too bad

it's too damn late to do anything about it now!

[Syrinx]

2. I've never cared for Blanche Lincoln

And I'm liking the Clinton's less and less everyday. In my early days on DU, I was a big defender of Bill Clinton. But I'm seeing the error of my ways. And I'm really starting to have doubts about Obama. At the risk of sounding superficially like John McLauglin, is it a metaphysical certainty that nobody can be elected to any meaningful political office in this country without hocking their soul to Big Oil and Big War? Damn it. I really, really love the ideals that this country is supposed to, theoretically, represent, but I hate the hell out of what it has become in reality... a cesspool of fetid deal-making, and a complete abandonment of the people. It is truly sickening. It's bears no resemblance to the country I was taught about in junior-high civics class.

[karynnj]

5. The Clinton years were a time when very little was done on this issue

It simply was not one of the issues that drove him. He did nothing to try to push increasing CAFE standards. In reality, in the years he was in office, if you defined cars to include SUVs (which are used as cars and substitute for cars) as cars, rather than trucks, the real CAFE standards fell.

There are many things Bill Clinton is passionate on, but he was never a passionate environmentalist. If you read This Moment on Earth, written by two passionate environmentalists, you will read of rivers contaminated by animal waste. Bill Clinton, as Governor of Arkansas, was among the politicians who ignored laws already on the books that would have prevented the pollution of Arkansas' rivers by Tyson Chicken.

[karynnj]

3. Lincoln was an original co-sponsor of this prominent piece of legislation since 1/21

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d111:10:./temp/~bd8mz1:@@@P|/home/LegislativeData.php?n=BSS;c=111|

Conoson is a flack on this piece. In the first place, there is no way that Clinton is second to only Gore and maybe Obama on global warming. There are many politicians who have been there with Gore for decades - unlike either of them. As to speaking passionately on it, Kerry is far far more passionate on this and has done far more - including having been very helpful at Bali and Poznan. Neither of which Clinton had anything to do with. Another person there from the beginning is Ed Markey.

In addition, I would assume that Bill Clinton likely did not say one word to lobby Lincoln on this issue before or after he "passionately" endorsed her. I know that Clinton spoke to the Democratic caucus in favor of passing a climate change bill, but I am willing to bet that he never tried to leverage the importance of his endorsement to get her to reconsider this.

[lunatica]

4. If you lie with dogs you wake up with fleas

Even if you're the so-called Big Dawg.

La Blanche is no Lincoln.

[DrToast]

6. Hey Bill, she was manipulating you for your vote!

[Cha]

7. All I can say is..karma's a

bitch and blanche's turn will come some fine day.