The World's Greatest Deliberative Body?

The Senate is supposed to be debating global warming -- the bill on the floor is the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act. But yesterday the Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, refused to allow the Senate to debate the 491-page bill, demanding instead that the clerk READ IT OUT LOUD -- a process that took NINE hours.

McConnell did not claim that members of the Senate were illiterate -- he said he was just pissed off that the Democrats weren't approving President Bush's judicial nominees. (Can McConnell spell infantile?) But evidently it's not really judges that got under McConnell's skin. Last night Majority Leader Harry Reid read a much shorter (and more interesting) document out loud to the Senate -- it was a leaked copy of a Republican leadership-strategy memo explaining that they had no intention of seriously legislating about climate change, but intended to use the floor time to score political points at the expense of the Democrats. The memo gleefully looked forward to a whole series of votes in which advocates of cleaning up global warming would be portrayed as plotting $8/gallon gasoline prices.

But evidently the Republicans may have made a serious mistake -- by demanding that the entire bill be read out loud, they effectively made it impossible for the Senate to have the very debate that they wanted to use to tar the Democrats.

Please help us get word to Washington: Americans want serious, urgent action on global warming. It's time for solutions, not stalling. Call your Senators and

Follow Carl Pope on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CarlPope

Comments

[cylindar]

Congress sucks! The do sure know how to deliberate and deliberate and deliberate, debilitate, debilitate, and debilitate.

[mr204]

Mr. Pope,

May I remind you of the First Amendment of our Constitution:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof... "

You are in effect, asking our elected officials to endorse and/or establish your religion (Environmentalism) to the exclusion of all others. The Constitution does not prohibit the "free exercise" of your religion, but the separation of church and state must remain. Hopefully the requisite number of Senators will remain to resist all attempts to compel government to recognize a single religion or church.

[Wilburrr]

Gee, Mr204,

I would have more regard for McConnell if that had been his motivation. As it is, I sent a donation to his opponent, Bruce Lunsford, who is leading in the polls.

http://www.ditchmitchky.com/
http://www.bruce2008.com/

As for environmentalism being a religion, I can see how you could argue about the higher power, but I'm not sure where the "afterlife" part comes in. Isn't that a requirement to complete the definition?

[ChartreuseMuse]

What a ridiculous statement!

I just hope those of you who are insistent on being willfully ignorant of scientific fact are busy
listing your excuses to tell the grandkids. I'm sure the religion joke will be a big hit!
If you think that our response to climate change will be too expensive or too ecclesiastic, you just wait until the very probable effects play havoc with our economy.

By the way, Earth Day is just one day, and we haven't succeeded in making it a true state recognized AND established religious holiday off from work and school, like Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Good Friday, (to the exclusion of all others). Hence, we haven't actually achieved religious parity quite yet whether as earth-worshipping tree-huggers or Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Atheists, etc. for that matter.

[gevan]

Can McConnell spell "stoopid"? How about "GOP are losers"?

[mgloraine]

Fiddling while Rome burns.

The US needs to take decisive and effective action very soon if we hope to avert global calamity, and if we ever hope to resume a credible leading role in the international arena. The politicians seeking to block this legislation are endangering everyone alive today and all potential future generations in order to acquire some transient political leverage or a few bucks under the table. Very short-sighted and self-serving. Someone should ask each of them pointedly and publicly why they are willing to destroy all future life on Earth for their short-term personal gain, and what exactly they are getting in exchange.

[peterg76]

"World's Greatest Deliberative Body?" Oh, come on, other than its members, does anyone really call it that?

[mgloraine]

Civics and government teachers throughout the US still refer to the Senate as the "World's Greatest Deliberative Body", which is why it still rings a bell when people hear or see the phrase in print. It's part of the Collective Unconscious of the Public School System, like the "Pledge of Allegiance".