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Friday, September 19, 2008
‘Gang of Ten’ energy bill put on hold until after November
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With Washington swamped by the crisis on Wall Street, U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss and his Democratic partner have pulled the plug on their bipartisan “Gang of Ten” energy bill until after the November elections.
Chambliss phoned this evening with the news.
But before the Senate adjourns next week, the Georgia senator said a revised version of the bill will be unveiled — one that will feature expanded territory for offshore oil drilling.
Chambliss, a Republican up for re-election, had formed an alliance with Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) this summer. Support had grown from the original 10 senators to 20.
“When you look at the atmosphere that’s in Washington right now — all of a sudden, the focus is on the financial side rather than energy. Kent and my thought is that this issue is such a critical issue, that it deserves a lot of time, a lot of thought, a lot of debate,” Chambliss said.
A House energy bill passed this week would go nowhere in the Senate, Chambliss predicted.
Republican members of the “Gang of Ten” — who include Georgia’s other senator, Johnny Isakson — had been criticized for working with Democrats on the bill, which mixes increased territory for drilling with incentives for conservation and the development of alternative sources of energy.
The “Gang of Ten” plan expanded offshore drilling into much of the Gulf of Mexico,and the Atlantic coasts of some southeastern states — but not Florida.
Both House Republicans and presidential candidate John McCain had adopted the call for nearly unlimited drilling in American territory, as espoused by former House speaker Newt Gingrich with his slogan of “Drill here, drill now.”
Even so, Chambliss said his “Gang of Ten” approach deserves credit for moving many Democrats, including U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, from a hardened stance against offshore drilling.
“Now you look where everybody is — they’re trying to out-offshore drill one another,” Chambliss said. “We decided that, if the ball has moved down the court, we’re changing our proposal.”
Chambliss skimped when it came to details of a revised “Gang of Ten” bill. But the senator said another reason for the delay was the loss of a means to pay for much of it.
In the original version, the “Gang of Ten” proposal envisioned repealing a 6-year-old, $30 billion tax credit for oil companies. That money would have gone to pay for alternative energy incentives. On talk radio and elsewhere, this was condemned as a tax increase.
The tax credit will in fact be repealed next week, Chambliss said. But now it will be used to help pay for the Wall Street bailout.
“Republicans are going to be voting for that on a wholesale basis,” Chambliss said. “Go figure.”
Photo credit: Jenni Girtman/AJC
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Barr loses first round in fight to keep Obama and McCain off the Texas ballot
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr has lost the first clash in his strange Texas fight to keep John McCain and Barack Obama off the ballot in that state.
Campaign manager Russ Verney put out word this afternoon that the Barr campaign’s request for an emergency stay, to block the mailing of ballots to overseas military personnel, has been rejected.
The Texas attorney general successfully argued that an order to halt the shipping of ballots would violate the voting rights of those in the armed services.
Barr contends that the Democratic and Republican nominees are disqualified from appearing on the Texas ballot because they missed the state’s Aug. 26 deadline to certify candidates. Obama was not formally named the Democratic candidate until an Aug. 27 vote in Denver. McCain claimed the Republican nomination on Sept. 3 in St. Paul.
Barr, who was kept off the West Virginia ballot because of a missed deadline, says turnabout is fair play.
The news media has been tentative with this story, uncertain whether the Barr lawsuit is a legal move with profound implications — Texas has 34 electoral votes — or another wispy courtroom sideshow.
But the Dallas Morning News on Thursday had these paragraphs:
The Supreme Court has refused to dismiss the case outright and has asked all parties to file their response to the lawsuit by Monday.
Part of the legal basis for the suit is Bush vs. Gore, by which the U.S. Supreme Court held that “the clearly expressed intent of the legislature must prevail,” and that election laws must be uniformly applied and interpreted.
“Sound familiar Mr. Bush? Sound familiar Republicans?” Mr. Barr said, adding that the state law is unambiguous.
“The Libertarian Party like other parties and independent candidates always face a struggle to get on the ballot and are sometimes excluded from the ballot for the most minor of details,” said state party chairman Patrick Dixon. “We may not like the rules, but we have to play by them.”
Meanwhile, Republicans in Pennsylvania have decided to appeal a judge’s decision last week that permitted Barr to remain on the ballot in that state.
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But if Tom Price is powerful enough to topple Wall Street, shouldn’t he be able to raise more than a measly $1 million?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bill Jones, the Democratic in the 6th District congressional race, has been out-raised nearly 5-to-1 by incumbent Tom Price. The district is heavily Republican.
Nonetheless, Jones has embarked on a unique path to victory: Persuade your opponent to leave the race.
Jones on Thursday declared that Price was at least partly to blame for this week’s Wall Street meltdown because he sits on a House subcommittee that oversees, according to its title, “Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises.”
It’s a subset of the House Financial Services Committee chaired by Barney Frank of Massachusetts.
“Families and small investors are watching their home values plummet and their retirement savings shrink because congressmen like Tom Price have been derelict in their duties,” Jones declared.
He called on the Roswell Republican to “step aside for the good of our country.”
So far, Price — who had $1 million in the bank as of June 30 — has rejected the advice. And may continue to do so. Price has also declined comment. Whether out of a sense of guilt or befuddlement, it’s hard to say.
See, there’s the legitimate question of whether the other 48 members of that one particular House subcommittee should also be saddled with responsibility for the current economic debacle.
Say, for instance, U.S. Rep. David Scott of Atlanta, a Democrat.
Jones told my AJC colleague Ben Smith: “I’ll leave that to the voters in their districts.”
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Olens heads to Europe to tour military bases, collect passport stamps
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sam Olens, chairman of the Cobb County commission, is off to Europe today to learn about the U.S. military and national defense.
Might the trip not also burnish Olens’ leadership credentials if he decides to run for governor later this year?
“No,” the chairman told my AJC colleague Dan Chapman on Thursday. “It has nothing to do with that. The reason they want folks in this program is for there to be individuals more knowledgeable about the military and to serve as goodwill ambassadors for the military. It’s not for political gain.”
So Olens must be aiming higher. Possibly the vice-presidency. In any case, this trip is proof that he owns a passport and isn’t afraid to use it.
The tour of U.S. military bases — which will include government, business and civic leaders from across the country — is sponsored by the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference and is run out of the U.S. Department of Defense.
Olens will use $4,000 from his commission campaign fund to pay a portion of the trip. The Pentagon will cover the rest.
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Isakson on the meltdown: Maybe it’d be better if Congress left town
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As of late Thursday, Congress was making noise about the need to postpone its adjournment for the fall campaign season.
One can’t criticize President Bush for not keeping you informed if one isn’t in town to be informed. Another reason: Should Democrats abandon Washington, Republicans, especially those in the House, might decide to hold another rump session — like they did in August over the energy issue.
But according to Bloomberg, at least one member of the Georgia delegation was having none of it:
Senator Johnny Isakson, a Georgia Republican active on housing issues, scoffed at suggestions that lawmakers postpone adjournment to rewrite laws governing the financial markets.
The last thing you need,'' he said,are 535 people, not many of whom are that well-versed in financial markets, trying to do quick fixes to a market correction that’s one of the more significant that we’ve ever seen.”
Photo credit: Rick McKay/Cox Washington Bureau
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