Thursday, November 05, 2009

Gamecock Gamesmanship, Uncloaked   [Chris Horner]

Yesterday, at the Washington Times' day-long confab on climate policy — featuring Sen. Inhofe, Rep. Markey and Czech Pres. Vaclav Klaus — I was part of a panel which was asked by moderator Jeff Birnbaum to share our thoughts about Sens. Kerry and Graham's claim to be developing a way to "yes" on a climate bill, in apparent hopes of snatching defeat from the jaws of our looming victory.

I responded in part by noting that Sen. Graham doesn't even seem to know what this loosey-goosey "framework" is, gushing as he does in the New York Times with Sen., Kerry about a critical component of it being something that sounds like cap-and-trade — then having his Washington and South Carolina staffs, as well as outside consultants tell voters and the media that he doesn't support cap-and-trade, and never will. The latter comes from people who have called the office, and from locals — as you'll read in the link below.

Given such confusion, this sounds like something to stay away from until Sen. Graham either knows, or is willing to admit, what it is he's talking about. "Pulling a Chamber," and latching onto the vague notion (under immense pressure from large member companies and/or in desperate DC-style hope) that members of Congress won't snub you, even while on bended knee at fundraisers, for daring to be obstructionist — others would call it having a survival instinct — is of extremely curious appeal.

Worse, however, the more the locals dig into and tell us about Graham's undertaking, the less there is to like.

11/05 05:00 PMShare