Making The Tough Call

by digby

The Waxman-Markey Cap and Trade bill is going to come to a vote in the House today and it’s very hard to know what to root for. People I respect on this issue are on both sides and it’s not entirely clear to me whether it would be better to pass it or let it fail on the merits. The politics are a little bit more clear — if it fails with a Democratic majority, Obama suffers a big defeat and they worry that it will stall his momentum and make it impossible to come back with anything even this good. The right and their energy company allies have organized better and the results are as per usual.

So, it seems that members are being faced with a number of unpalatable choices on this one, not the least of which is the fact that the right will cast this bill as a huge tax and jobs loser, a vote for which will have to be explained for many years to come. The environmental groups are all pushing it, however, and the president himself is whipping hard for the bill, so the political calculus for congresspeople is very complicated. On the merits, if the Senate worsens the thing even the slightest, it probably won’t be worth passing in the end. But at this point, there are respectable reasons to vote both for and against.

A lot of Democrats in tough districts are going to vote against the bill and it’s hard to blame them under the circumstances. But there are a handful who are holding fast because they think this bill is important even though it’s imperfect, and they are doing it espite the fact they are in districts that will almost definitely punish them for it. They are Tom Periello, Martin Heinrich, Betsey Markey, Steve Dreihas, Dan Maffei and Ben Chandler and they deserve some credit for standing up for their principles under tough circumstances.

And the president owes them big time for doing it. He is personally calling members and asking them to take this tough vote because it’s the right thing to do. And he needs to reward those who are taking a big risk with a ton of support in the mid-terms — camp out in their districts if he has to. Obama has to do everything he can to ensure they don’t lose their seats over this. Leaving people hanging out to dry as Clinton did on the BTU tax back in the early 90s is a recipe for losing your authority — and your majority.

Darcy Burner has more on this and has set up an Act Blue page so that people can show their appreciation for these members making a tough vote on behalf of the planet when they not only won’t gain anything politically for it, but stand to lose a lot. It’s a rare thing.

*BTW: It’s less about the money, although I’m sure they are happy to get it. It’s more about the number of people. So if you only have 10 bucks to spread around, that’s ok. It’s just a way of letting them know that we have noticed and that we appreciate it.

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