Pelosi to shiv Dingell over auto industry?
By Moe Lane Posted in Democrats — Comments (19) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Why, that would be just awful of her (Via RCP):
Global warming bound to burn Big 3
Nolan Finley(snip)
Always in the past, Detroit could count on one man -- John Dingell -- to stand between its lifeblood industry and the increasing influence of environmental zealots. Big John, restored to chairman of the potent Energy and Commerce Committee, ought to be perfectly positioned this time to fend off the hysterical hordes.
But there's an intense effort to marginalize Dingell, to portray him as a stooge for the industry and, at age 80, out of touch with modern concerns.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi formed a "select committee" on global warming, chaired by the headline hound Ed Markey of Massachusetts, to make an end run around Dingell.
Read on.
For those tuning in late, here's the situation. Rep. Dingell has been a US House Representative (effectively for Detroit MI) for fifty years. He is now Chairman of Energy and Commerce, he knows where every body relevant to him is buried and a measure of his personal power can be deduced by the way that he's talking to this (female) reporter*. This man ain't just bulletproof; he shoots the bullets back. I'm being ah, less impudent than usual in the way I'm talking about him, in fact.
And there's the problem for Pelosi, because when it comes to the auto industry Rep. Dingell sounds just like a Republican. Check out the above interview and see: the Representative isn't impressed about rhetoric about global climate change, outright laughs at Kyoto (and points out precisely how quickly both sides of the aisle made it clear that they weren't having any of that) and is rather loudly heretical about various environmental dogmas. Heck, he even says 'nuclear' without spitting. And he's going to be running Energy for the next six years (unless, of course, he dies, retires or gets defeated in election before then).
The Speaker is trying to get around this by creating the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming - which would have the potential** to do an end run around Rep Dingell's committee. This pleases a number of activists... but it's part of a policy that's not pleasing the Democrats who are actually running committees right now. They're already not liking the imposition of term limits on committee heads - a holdover from GOP rule that Speaker Pelosi didn't dare meddle with - and as time goes on there's an indication that Will Rogers famous observation about his political affiliation remains essentially true. More personally, there's some indication that the Speaker at the Representative have been off-again, on-again clashing with each other for a while now.
It should be noted that currently Speaker Pelosi and Rep. Dingell were acting nice-nice with each other in public on this. It should also be noted that House Minority Leader Boehner has publicly announced that he's going to oppose formation of Pelosi's proposed committee. The question is, will Dingell take advantage of this to make the Speaker blink?
After all, it won't be the first time for her...
Moe Lane
*Link via here, and was she not amused...
**Its actual power to do so is still up for grabs.
Deal with reporters the way dingle did. Talk about keeping someone in their box.
Veritas magna est et praevalet.
The President has talked about America's addition to oil in 2 SOTU speeches and 85% of Americans say oil independence is a serious problem. The United States and the world face a giant paradigm shift in the next few years which has already begun to effect the auto industry. The survival of the auto industry depends on how it makes the transition away from cars that use oil as the primary fuel. But as their financial position has never been weaker they are not in a position to invest in new fuel-efficiency technologies. Some hard choices about government involvement need to be made as the health care costs of retirees loom. Some creative ideas are out there which Mr. Dingell would be wise to explore. The task is daunting and he will need all the help he can get - even from Democrats and women.
...are your own, or just what you think ours are: either way, don't even think about expressing yourself in such a fashion here again. We clear on this, or do I have to use words of one syllable next time?
Moe
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC.
to the 19th century. The odd thing about it all is that the city which lent its name to a non-enforceable treaty which is largely ignored has developed considerable pollution of it's own. Maybe Kyoto should begin to abide by the rules of the Kyoto Treaty, maybe Nancy should be its Mayor.
"a man's admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him". Tocqueville
Explain this:
http://www.forbes.com/corporatecitizenship/2007/01/25/krupp-environmenta...
Note General Motors in the article.
The one you gave mentions General Electric, but not General Motors. Mind you, I'd be happy to switch out our current electric generation methods for an equal amount generated by nuclear energy, and I suspect so would GE. But that's another blog post.
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC.
Global warming means selling new capital to industry. Rather than waiting 50 years for the old equipment to break GE gets to sell you new stuff as per mandate. When they say GW will cost us billions, where do you think that money is going? Duh. And any company that faces the possibility of product commoditization will definitely push for GW mandates. China can reproduce 100-year old technology easier than 3 year old.
I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
GE Power Systems sells turbines for fossil-fuel electric generation. And this is a huge business for them, too.
(End of threadjack.)
I note with some amusement that the person who started it hasn't been back to explain his original point. :)
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC.
The main reasons the big three are in trouble are employee health plans and pensions(partly made worse by corrupt unions) and secondly that their products are simply not as good as the imports - they are un-sexy, cheep feeling, and get bad mileage.
If Ford and GM (chrysler's already gone) don't address these problems, like yesterday, then they're going to find themselves owned by Toyota and Honda. Blaming environmentalists is just scapegoating and a way to buy a few more years producing junk while they *hopefully* start addressing the problem.
is not health care. That's just the current outbreak of STD's in the US industry. Their REAL problem is that for the last 50 years the stupidist people on the planet have not been in Washington DC (although they're a close second) the stupidist people on the planet have been in senior management and on the Boards of Directors of GM, Ford and Chrysler. In that order.
And STD stands for Stupid Thinking Disorder.
___________________
If "pro" is the opposite of "con", what is the opposite of "progress"...
Senior Writer
Chrysler/Dodge has made quite a turnaround in quality and sales since their purchase by Daimler/Mercedes. They're doing well enough that they're subsidizing the failing Mercedes Benz company.
They lost control of the minivan market when they cancelled the Plymouth Voyager line, though. So it's not All good. But theyre trucks are cutting Huge swathes through Ford and Chevy and their higher end cars (Seabring, 300M, Crossfire) are doing quite well, too...
"The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal comfort... has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
--John Stuart Mill
A Democrat civil war!!
This should be fun!!!
So, in a fight to the death Pelosi v. Dingell , who should we bet on? Dingell is the old bull, but Pelosi has the party behind her on the issues. I predict a lot of blood being drawn on both sides.
Does Pelosi have a compulsion to pick fights with her Democratic rivals? (eg Steny Hoyer) That could be a serious character flaw for a party leader.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amok_Time
I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
You guys should read Joel Makower's latest blog post. It begins...
The Paradox of 'Climate Profiteers'
You gotta love the conservative media. They'll grasp any available straws, however thin, to pooh-pooh climate action. For most of the past two decades, of course, the complaint was that any effort to stem greenhouse gas emissions would ruin the economy, forcing big business to all but fold up their tents and the global economy to go down the tubes.
Now that a growing corps of corporations are mustering the moxie to actually view climate change as an opportunity as well as a challenge, the complaint is something entirely different:
Big business is engaging in climate profiteering!
All y'all from other parts do realize that the original wasn't really a environmental post, right? It was actually about the possibility of Pelosi butting heads with one of her committee heads. Again.
For the record: I'm bemused, not annoyed. But I have to wonder what it'd take to recognize the actual problem. Crysknives on the Senate floor?
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC.
I got lucky at an auction a couple years back and got hold of a crysknife actually used by Mua'Dib in Dune.
"The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal comfort... has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
--John Stuart Mill
>>>>Big business is engaging in climate profiteering!
Enron was trying to horn in on that puppy back in 1996. That was why they were giving VP Al Gore all the jet rides and such. Enron was in on some of the behind the scenes stuff that caused Hagel and Byrd to bring the Hagel-Byrd Resolution to the floor against Kyoto.
Harry Reid is to ethics reform what HIV was to free love!
Although the Motown 3's power & influence aren't what they used to be... (and Dingell's for that matter) is still not to be trifled with! Imo
If the State of the Union was any indication the speaker will most defiantly blink!!!
Founder and contributor to The Minority Report and Senior writer for The Hinzsight Report