Another great RL Miller DK diary - on a very good Bingaman bill that deals with the spill issue

[karynnj]

This is what Democrats are speaking of combining with the climate change stuff.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/6/26/879303/-Dems-Go-Big,-Part-1:-Bingaman-Spill-Bill-Analysis

(RL Miller is incredible in writing readable diaries that explain these bills.

[Inuca]

1. Thanks karyn

I would not have seen it otherwise. I am not sure though about the "foundation of a climate and energy" part. What does it mean? Major amendements to this spill-based foundation?

[karynnj]

2. I'm not sure either

I suspect that it is simply a way that Bingaman wants this to be the foundation that Reid builds on. This bill was discussed in committee before the fantastic caucus where Reid ended up backing doing climate control. In reality the new bill will be constructed by Reid with the key players. It will be interesting to see which people are given lead roles.

I may be an optimist, but last week seemed to say that Kerry and Lieberman won out over Schumer. This happened in spite of the Politico piece that set the tone that Kerry was annoying everyone with his talk of climate change. One clue that these people over played their hand was that Wonkette made fun of them - rather than Kerry on this. (This is not an issue of personal credit, but that they are motivated by completely different things - and are at cross purposes here. I would not be surprised if Schumer did not swing to playing like he is an environmentalist and always has been - just as he played being a leader on the public option. Here, though, if that happens it will be good news as it means that he recognized the political winds shifted.)

There was an article which I now can't find of Schumer now speaking of getting a centrist group to lead on this. It looks though as, for now, Reid was pushed to go with policy over politics. It seems clear that Kerry and Bingaman are the obvious people to help design this. No one knows the trade offs between Senators on this bill better than Kerry.