From LeftCoaster -- Energy Bill passes in House: Dems who defected

[cloudythescribbler]

House Democrats Help DeLay Pass Energy Bill And MTBE Corporate Welfare Yesterday
As you know by now, the House GOP leadership under the whip of an allegedly damaged Tom DeLay rammed through the deeply flawed Bush energy bill yesterday by a 249-183 vote. The House GOP leadership made sure that the bill did little to reduce demand and to fund alternative energy development, even though GOP national security conservatives have now identified both as keys to our anti-terrorism and national security policies. But DeLay and Company made sure that the bill contained even more oil company tax breaks that the Bush/Cheney White House wanted, and it also included the provision to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration.

Aside from the flaws in this worthless piece of corporate welfare, there were several disgusting elements to what transpired yesterday. First, these are the 17 Democrats who voted yesterday for the energy bill, and who also voted for the bankruptcy bill and estate tax giveaway. And no, not all of them are from oil states, so it calls into question why these 17 would willingly vote against consumers and for the credit card industry with the bankruptcy bill; vote for the wealthy and against tax fairness with the estate tax repeal; and then vote against local governments and taxpayers and for oil companies and terrorists with the Bush energy bill.

Sanford Bishop, Georgia
Dan Boren, Oklahoma
Leonard Boswell, Iowa
Rick Boucher, Virginia
Bud Cramer, Alabama
Henry Cuellar, Texas
Lincoln Davis, Tennessee
Chet Edwards, Texas
Bart Gordon, Tennessee
Ruben Hinojosa, Texas
William Jefferson, Louisiana
Jim Matheson, Utah
Charlie Melancon, Louisiana
Collin Peterson, Minnesota
David Scott, Georgia
Ike Skelton, Missouri
Albert Russell Wynn, Maryland

Please note that there were 22 brave House Republicans who voted against DeLay on this bill yesterday. Yet 17 of our own made DeLay’s job easy.

But perhaps the most sickening part of this vote yesterday is a provision in the bill demanded by DeLay that shields the corporate makers of gasoline additive MTBE from liability lawsuits for damaging community groundwater supplies, thereby transferring the multi-billion dollar costs of these cleanups from the oil and chemical companies onto the backs of local communities and their taxpayers. MTBE has already been shown to cause defects in children and the unborn, and yet Tom DeLay and the House GOP leadership just granted a large piece of corporate welfare to the oil and gas companies while saddling local governments and their taxpayers with the tab.

And even worse yet, Democratic Representative Lois Capps of California was able to get an amendment considered that would have removed the MTBE corporate welfare giveaway removed from the bill. But the amendment lost by only six votes (213-219), and there were 14 Democrats who voted with DeLay against taxpayers and local communities. If these 14 Democrats had stuck with Nancy Pelosi on just this one amendment and had voted with local taxpayers and against oil and chemical companies, this horrendous amendment would have passed and the MTBE product liability shield would have been deleted.

These 14 Democrats are:

Neil Abercrombie, Hawaii
Dan Boren, Oklahoma
Bud Cramer, Alabama
Henry Cuellar, Texas
Danny K. Davis, Illinois
Chet Edwards, Texas
Charlie Gonzalez, Texas
Al Green, Texas
Gene Green, Texas (also on the House Ethics Committee)
Ruben Hinojosa, Texas
Sheila Jackson-Lee, Texas (yes, you read that correctly)
Charlie Melancon, Louisiana
Solomon Ortiz, Texas
Silvestre Reyes, Texas

I guess none of these Democrats, some who come from poor districts, have leaking gas stations in their districts that have contaminated local groundwater supplies, and none of them have public health concerns stemming from MTBE. These 14 Democrats will have to explain their votes to their local taxpayers. The truth is that Tom DeLay and the big oil and chemical companies control the Democrats in the Texas delegation, not their constituents or Nancy Pelosi.

And since when did Sheila Jackson-Lee throw away public health concerns to please big chemical companies? Why do any of these folks have D's next to their names?




Steve Soto :: 8:17 AM :: Comments (30) :: TrackBack (1)

[Erika]

1. Very interesting

Some of them have some explaining to do. But all the Texans are nuts.

[Joebert]

2. I want to know why Herseth voted for the energy bill.

I saw her on CSpan a couple weeks ago touting her biofuel / ethanol bill that will be coming sometime in the next several weeks.

I will never understand politicians.

[ngGale]

4. Sheila Jackson-Lee sure disappointed me...

do all the people in Texas have oil, or just on the take?

[Ruffhowse]

3. Almost all of these dems are deep in red states, and apparently are

more concerned with their own re-election than doing the right thing. Shame on them all.

[cloudythescribbler]

6. analysis of the Reps

First of all, there is NO excuse for ANY rep from a district with mostly voters of color to vote for this bill. These are solid Democratic districts that have little mass enthusiasm for such a big business bill. These are reps that should have someone run against them. Red "state" doesn't mean red district. There are districts in TX that are "bluer" than many districts in New Jersey, or upstate NY, or CA.

That said, note the districts in other areas where Dems voted with the bill. Wynn of MD,Boswell of Iowa, Ike Skelton of Missouri, and Peterson of Minnesota need to be looked into, as does Abercrombie of Hawaii (note that in the Senate the TWO DEMs from HI were decisive in passing the bill to drill in the wildlife areas of Alaska!), and Davis of Ill. Together with those who represent predominantly districts of color, where they would figure their seats are safe from local challenge but there are interest deals to be made, these are Dems that often need challengers in their primaries, if only to hold their feet to the fire, to prevent this kind of hideous defection. The whole energy policy of the Bush Administration is one of the WORST things they've done, in addition to the deficit and the Iraq War.

[sandnsea]

5. TX, TN & AL Blue Dogs

I put together a list of the names on both the bankruptcy bill & energy bill. If we could do something about those 3 states, we'd pick up 1/3 of these defectors. 13 out of 32. And maybe make some progress on moving this country forward. But when you've got minority Reps from these states voting like this, how anybody expects to win a Presidential campaign in these states is beyond me. Blue Dogs, need to take the Republican choke chain off and get some oxygen into their brains.

And what is up with Greg Meeks from NY???

Baca San Bernadino CA B
Bishop Columbus GA B
Boren Muskogee OK B
Boswell IA B
Boucher SW VA
Cramer Huntsville AL B
Cuellar San Antonio TX
Davis AL Birmingham AL
Davis So Mid TN 2002 B
Edwards Ft Worth – Waco TX 1990
Ford Memphis TN 1996 B
Gonzales San Antonio TX 1998
Gordon No MID TN 1982
Green, AL Houston TX 2005
Herseth SD 2002 B
Hinojosa McAllen TX 1996
Holden Harrisburg PA B
Jackson-Lee Houston TX 1994
Jefferson New Orleans LA 1996
Matheson SE Utah 2000 B
Meeks Queens NY 1998
Melancon Houma LA B
Mollohan Wheeling WV 1983
Murtha SW PA
Ortiz Brownsville TX 1982
Peterson MN B
Pomeroy ND B
Reyes El Paso TX 1994
Ross S AR 2000 B
Scott Jonesboro GA 2002 B
Skelton Jeff City MO
Wynn Rockville MD

[cloudythescribbler]

7. could you explain this interesting list a little more?

Could you explain this a little more. What exactly is the list and what do the B's mean? Why do some have years after their names but not others? Etc. This sort of analysis is important, especially if someone could find a Congress wonk to try to explain the politics and challengability of EACH of these Democrats in the primaries.

I do NOT accept the theory that they are merely trying to appease their pro-energy bill pro-bankruptcy bill mass constituencies in most cases. Rather, they are often from safe districts exploiting the LACK of any re-election threat!

[sandnsea]

9. B = Blue Dogs

For start. Sorry. But not all Blue Dogs are on the list because they all didn't vote for both bills. I chose the bankruptcy bill & energy bill because the issues are different. One might consider main street on bankruptcy, but main street desperately needs new energy policy. And I think cares about the environment because they know the clean-up issues involved. In my mind. Could be wrong.

The year is the year they were elected, some didn't have that info on their web site. Some have been there so long, it didn't seem worth my time to hunt down the year to point it out. It's intended to show reelection isn't the issue for some of these people, they've been there forever.

The most interesting thing I found was the number of southern African-Americans who voted for this stuff. Shows that maybe some Democrats are way out of touch if they're voting FOR bankruptcy reform in parts of the country that we think we're going to reach on some people's idea of economic populism.

Then you add in the state's with only one rep, like ND & SD, and seems like it shows a real pattern of disconnect. But TN, TX & AL seem like places we could get the most bang for our buck with some heavy grassroots activism and investment in educating the voter.

[flpoljunkie]

10. IOW, are we being played by the Dems. Whatever corporate America wants

corporate America gets. Somehow, there always seem to be enough Democratic votes to pass the next item on Dubya's corporate America's wish list--particularly, if they are crucial to get it passed.

The Senate will be taking up the energy bill next month. It has failed in the Senate several times--not because of a united Democratic front, but because there were enough Republican Senators from the North East that would not accept the MTBE provisions.

If Democrats continue to vote like Republicans, that is--for the special interests and not the national interest--on the issues that matter, let them become Republicans. I am sending no money to the DNC, the DCCC or the DSCC--only individual candidates.

If the House and Senate Democrats cannot stand together and stand up for the people and not the special interests, I refuse to support them as a whole. Only real Democrats will get my support.

And, by the way, still not a word from Howard Dean on the bankruptcy bill. We have been sold out again to the special interests and their corrosive influence on our democracy.

[xchrom]

8. sigh -- another day in the united corporate dominion.

they must get together and decide which dems will vote for bills like this.

it's the only thing i can think of.

[ebayfool]

11. The MTBE section really pisses me off. The town I'm from has had ...

MAJOR problems w/this crap. The state has to truck in water for the residents still there, & it forced all but one of the small businesses (my family USED to run a little cafe in the only shopping center) to shut down completely. Has damn near choked the town to death! One well was found to have more than 20,000 parts per billion of MTBE in ground water (1000 times greater than the EPA recommends). They claim to clean it up, then find out it has migrated - people can't give away their homes ... much less sell them. The authorities just spin their wheels blaming the last owners (this contamination was discovered well before they bought the place) each other, the oil companies, but now it won't matter because the oil companies are off the hook? Too bad the residents aren't!

http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/agendas/1999/october/1007-17.htm