Blog Focus On Barbara Boxer's Bill Blitzkrieg
Blog Focus is Technorati's daily roundup of the top stories as told by the bloggers of the world. Each day five posts, no matter how popular or nascent, will be selected by editors to portray a general unscientific reaction to discussion points around the 'Net.
Before the tragic shooting in Fort Hood, the story out of Washington was a swift little move employed by Barbara Boxer to pass her climate bill out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, despite the fact that no Republicans were present. It's customary that they have to be present for this to happen, but since they purposely didn't show up, Boxer felt it necessary and cited a rule that allowed her to do this. The bill's now in the Senate.
Shrewd or lewd? Let's see how the bloggers saw it through their laptops:
• Daily Kos — Senator Jim Inhofe isn't thrilled about what he calls the "nuclear option" that Sen. Boxer enacted to push it through. Kos writer BarbinMD's response? "Well, Jim, next time try showing up and doing your job." He tried that. He didn't like it!
• Maggie's Notebook — Okay, so where exactly IS this rule? Maggie M. Thornton can't find it on their website: "I see nothing in the rules that allows for a 'simple majority.' In fact, without a quorum, there is no avenue for conducting committee business." Did you check the site map?
• The Huffington Post — As a result, the Democrats in the committee passed the bill 11-1. The one naysayer was Senator Max Baucus, who said the 20 percent reduction was too ambitious and wanted 17 percent. Bill Scher didn't see the point in the contention, because he writes Boxer's strategy was just to get through all the red tape. "Baucus failed to understand this. He wasted everyone's time futilely negotiating with people who fundamentally disagreed with the entire premise of reform, giving opponents extra time to organize and spread misinformation." Translation: get in line, boy.
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