Civility
by digby
In a heated hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill, Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman called upon the billionaire Koch brothers to be subpoenaed over their alleged monetary interests in the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. Republican Congressman Ed Whitfield angrily cut off Waxman. “We’re not going to be subpoenaing the Koch brothers … because the Koch brothers have nothing to do with this project,” Whitfield snapped.
“Point of order!” Waxman exclaimed. “You cut me out in the middle of a sentence!”
“Your time was up, Mr. Waxman!” Whitfield shot back. “We are going to recess this hearing for ten minutes and then we’re going to come back.”
“Are you calling the Koch brothers during the recess?” Waxman sniped.
“If you want to talk about that, let’s talk about the millions of dollars the Obama administration gave companies like Solyndra and people like George Kaiser and other campaign bundlers,” Whitfield fumed.
“Why are you interrupting members and then you take unlimited time for yourself?” Waxman responded.
“I’m the chairman! And I’m telling you right now we’re going to recess for ten minutes!” Whitfield boomed, before storming out of the hearing.
For background on this, read this article in The Hill. The Kochs are a great symbol for the Democrats and they’re smart to use it. But in case you think this is terribly uncivilized, get a gander at what the GOP has in mind:
In 1996, Republicans pivoting to the second year of control of the House realized they made a strategic error in aggressively thumping environmental regulations.
“Let’s stop shooting ourselves in the foot on that one,” House Speaker Newt Gingrich told his lieutenants, as chronicled by Washington Post reporters David Maraniss and Michael Weisskopf in their 1996 book, “Tell Newt to Shut Up!”
“We kinda looked up one day and said ‘This wasn’t smart,’” recalled Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) in the book. The revelation spurred approval of major changes in 1996 to the Safe Drinking Water Act even as Republicans looked to knock off Bill Clinton from a second term in the White House.
In 2012, with Gingrich on the campaign trail and Republican front-runner Mitt Romney tied with Obama in a new CNN poll, Boehner, now speaker, and his House GOP crew aren’t second-guessing their agenda. Instead, they see energy as a wedge issue they can use to appeal to independent voters with a pro-jobs message, especially if gasoline prices start to increase this summer.
Nah, politics haven’t moved right. Both sides do it, remember? It’s a wash!
I do hope the Democrats aren’t also forgetting the lessons of the past in terms of how this Solyndra pseudo-scandal is developing. The Republicans will spend as much money as it takes to get this to penetrate to at least “smell test” level. It’s what they do and they’re good at it. I don’t know if it has the potency they think it has, but it will be a distraction and an annoyance if it takes off regardless — and make the public question alternative energy as nothing more than a scam. Which is the point.
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