Every year when I see “May 7,” I think, “7 Days in May.” Don’t you? Well, the good news is that nothing like what happened in that movie has actually happened. Here’s what did happen today:
- Highway patrol to review Benjamin wreck (thestate.com) — First, Henry McMaster said Chief Carter had to ask for the review, then he did. Now this.
- Graham says climate bill cannot pass Senate (WashPost) The one Republican willing to work with Democrats (and my man Joe) on a real Energy Party approach says the effort is dead this year, victim of Democrats’ moves on immigration and the Gulf oil spill.
- Tories meet Lib Dems over deal for power (BBC) — Which, when you think about it, seems hardly fair. Labour came in a fairly respectable second, yet doesn’t get a seat at the table while the Lib Dems, who hardly registered, do. It’s like if our runoff elections were between the highest and the lowest vote-getters, instead of 1st and 2nd. Sort of.
- Jobless Rate Hits 9.9 Percent, But That’s Not All Bad (NPR) — U.S. employers added more jobs last month than at any time in the past four years, but the brightening labor picture prompted hundreds of thousands of people to start looking again.
- Volatile Week on Wall Street Ends With Another Slide (NYT) — And they still don’t know what caused yesterday’s craziness.
- Pentagon Asks for LESS Money (WashPost) — Both Bush and Obama administrations have asked for less money for the troops than Congress wanted to spend.
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So, Sens. Lieberman and Graham are willing to kill a bill that is so very needed because of unrelated problems. Thaat’s rite wite of them.
Karen, a couple of points about that: The oil rig disaster IS very much related, since (if I’m remembering correctly) offshore drilling was part of the bill. As you recall, I said it was an Energy Party bill, which means it envisioned doing everything practical to get us off foreign oil.
Also, you’re forgetting that Graham is THE guy who’s taken a bullet over and over again on comprehensive immigration reform. His position on that AND working with Kerry on energy have hurt him a great deal at home politically. He has spent and spent and spent political capital, and he was expected to be the point guy again on immigration.
Then, suddenly, because of Arizona, the Harry Reids of the world decided to take a different tack on immigration because (the way Graham sees it) they cynically saw an opportunity to gain partisan advantage from it — thereby trampling on his effort.
My guess is that the Dems wanting him on energy was the only bit of leverage he had to get them to back off on their new course on immigration.
But the oil rig disaster would be enough on its own to make the energy bill unlikely right now. It was always going to be a hard slog; it’s not likely to go anywhere now.
It will probably have to be re-worked. But to simply kill it accomplishes nothing. The problem as I see it, is that both Dems and Republicans would rather score points with the electorate than get any good work done. If they can’t agree on some things, they need to look for what they can agree on that is helpful, and get that passed. I know that this member of the electorate is getting durned tired of these games. I see you are defending Sen. Graham again. I’ll applaud him (and do) when he’s accomplishing useful goals. I will not when he’s trying for political 1 upsmanship. And what’s Mr. Lieberman’s excuse?
“because (the way Graham sees it) they cynically saw an opportunity to gain partisan advantage from it — thereby trampling on his effort.”
Sounds kind of childish to me–either you want it or you don’t….the fact that someone else is going to “make partisan hay” out of it doesn’t change the rightness of an action…and half a loaf is usually better than none.
Perhaps if you’d been exposed on the front line on this issue for as long as Graham has — with your own people shooting at your back the whole way — you might get pretty disgusted when the other side, which doesn’t give a damn about the cost to you of trying to work with them, decides to quit working with you on it, and just do what they please.
Maybe y’all don’t care about whether Lindsay can accomplish these things and still get re-elected, but I do. I’d hate to see him get one or two things done by falling on his sword, then be replaced by another DeMint.
May the Fourth Be with you. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Day
I had to put up the above for a bit of levity.
OMG! I hope we don’t have any Tea Baggers in the military!
“7 Days in May” looks like it is an interesting movie. I don’t know if TBS Classic Movies will show it or if it’s on DVD rental or not.
And “Seven Days in May” is available on DVD via Netflix. I just checked.
If I remember correctly, the movie “7 Days in May” was a disappointment for those of us who had read and enjoyed the book so much.
Brad, if you think “Seven Days in May” is far-fetched, what do you think of the group that calls themselves Oathkeepers? They tried some direct action up in Tennessee last week. It ended poorly for them.
How does Capital A’s post fit your policy? Anonymous AND abusive. Hypocrisy reigns.