Where There's Fire, There's Smoke

The Clear Skies bill is apparently deadlocked, but the legislators seem unusually vexed about it:

The 9-9 vote on Bush's "Clear Skies" plan -- a name that Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., described as "akin to calling Frankenstein Tom Cruise" -- was expected and fell largely along party lines.

Barbara Boxer is a lot more outspoken (and funnier) these days, which is a good thing!

[The panel's chairman, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla. said] "This bill has been killed by the environmental extremists who care more about continuing the litigation-friendly status quo and making a political statement on CO2 than they do about reducing air pollution."

Siding with seven Democrats against the bill were Sens. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., and James Jeffords, I-Vt., who complained it would weaken the 1970 Clean Air Act, last amended in 1990. They also wanted limits put on carbon dioxide, the "greenhouse" gas scientists blame for global warming, which Bush opposes regulating. "It's a shame that the U.S. Congress is the last bastion of denial on climate change," Chafee said.

Not just Congress - the American people - and for that matter, almost all the people on Earth, are in denial as well.

[Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana] suggested starting from scratch for another compromise later this year, since "sometimes things have to be torn apart before they can be put back together again."

Or maybe abandoned?

Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., said the bill was needed because "it's a sin to burn natural gas. We might want to consider a sin tax on those utilities that burn natural gas."

What the heck is Kit Bond talking about - it's a "sin" to burn clean, abundant natural gas? More like a misdemeanor - burning dirty coal is closer to a "sin" than clean natural gas. Legislators sure get hyperbolic when they are mad!

Among the most impassioned about the defeat were Sens. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, and Thomas Carper, D-Del., who led most of the committee's negotiations.

Voinovich said that that bill was about nothing less than keeping coal -- "our most abundant and cheapest energy source -- part of our energy future." But Carper said the bill's opponents had been stonewalled by the White House and EPA when requesting more information about it. "That's got to end," he said, raising his voice.

Coal miners vs. downwinders here. Irreconcilable foes!

To refute such charges, Inhofe had arranged six cardboard boxes piled high before him with what he said were 10,000 pages of paper -- a spectacle that Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., called "that mini-Superfund site in front of your desk."

Lautenberg funny! Republicans mad, Democrats funny! They way I like them best!