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A senior Democratic congressman likened Republican lawmakers to terrorists on Thursday for their insistence on tying approval of construction of a new oil pipeline to must-pass legislation.
California Rep. Henry Waxman, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the coauthor of the 2009 cap-and-trade climate change bill, decried efforts by the GOP to force the Obama administration into approving a permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline.
"They want to use legislation as a way to act like terrorists. They hold things as hostage," Waxman said. "We almost couldn't fund the government because Republicans wanted to hold that idea hostage, we almost couldn't pay our debts because the Republicans wanted to hold that legislation hostage to their extreme agenda, and I wouldn't be surprised if they scuttled this conference by trying to hold us hostage."
Waxman was referring specifically to rumblings from Republicans that they might attach the provision to legislation extending a payroll tax cut through the end of 2012. Waxman is one of the 20 bipartisan negotiators who are working to reach an agreement on that extension by Feb. 29, when the current extension is set to expire.
During the first meeting of the payroll tax cut negotiators on Tuesday, Waxman said that he supports using the millionaire tax surcharge to help pay for the extension, a nonstarter for Republicans, but has made it clear that the Keystone pipeline is not something he would support.
"That is so stupid already for them to be pushing the Keystone pipeline issue in this bill, in this conference," Waxman said today, "Republicans have been so mean-spirited, and I think that's coming across to the American people."
Waxman is among a group of lawmakers who oppose the Keystone XL pipeline for environmental reasons, citing the number of jobs created over the two years it will take to construct the pipe as not worth the environmental costs that will result from the use of the oil that it transports.
"Many of us believe that that pipeline will lock us into a 50 to 100 years of dependence on the dirtiest source of oil that can cause enormous increases in greenhouse gases and lead to greater global warming and climate change," Waxman said.
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Keeping the tone mello.
This is just what Obama was talking about - working together.
It may feel uncomfortable, but Rep. Waxman speaks true. It is not his fault that we've come to this moment in US politics.
Holding the American people hostage time after time, as GOP/Koch congressionals did last year over the debt ceiling, unemployment benefits & payroll tax cuts in order to get concessions they would not get under ordinary conditions, IS using terrorist tactics.
Becoming acclimatised/accustomed to GOP/Koch/Norquist forcing our hand & doing business this way in Congress, when they've been elected to look out for the American people - ain't right.
The Keystone Pipeline, whatever you think about it, has NOTHING to do with extending the middle class payroll tax cut. NOTHING.
So thanks for your honesty Mr. Waxman. Please continue to speak up, Sir.
Right on cue Navy.
You are really a piece of work.
And so darn predictable.
Nice drama.....or cheap drama......??
After taking a moment to consider the relative merits of your accusation at #1.2,
Have decided that the insult/deny strategy is perfectly in-keeping with the GOP tactics discussed above.
Backhouse .....nice ...that was kind of my point...I'm surprised someone made an article on it...ok...I see who you were mentioning....not my post.....
Froma Redux!
Mello? Is that what you call the outrageous use of the filibuster to stop all Demo legislation from even getting a vote? Or how about all the appointments on hold because the Repubs are holding their collective breaths until they get their way and their way only?
Is this the "new tone of civility" that the Democrat Party was calling for just a year ago?
From last January:
In a statement Monday, Wasserman Schultz says the shooting has reminded her that "words have the power to hurt and to heal." She says the country needs "a new tone of civility in our public discourse."
Rep. Waxman needs to stop using the hate speech that has the power to hurt now.
No doubt Rep. Wasserman Schultz will denounce this eliminationist rhetoric in the strongest possible terms.
Cause no of us American citizens want cheap gas.
Nope, we just want the congress critters to get along.
Naa. Wexman should get back on gutting entitlements by cutting the taxes going in.
What could go wrong? Not like this particular program is insolvent already.
Want cheap gas? Buy a Volt.
Yea, because electricity is cheap or it catches on fire or better yet pay 40K for it. I see a winner..........
Buy a TDI, 45MPG
But, but the volt is so fuel efficient. It has such an exceptional range, why I can drive to des moines and hitch back home! If it is winter and I want heat, even des moines is out of range.
While I understand the frustration Waxman must be feeling, I wish he wouldn't use such language.
Maybe that is what Newt Gingrich taught us: if you want to be heard you have to say outlandish, offensive things.
Yeah, Newt was the first politician to say outlandish things.
When exactly was he the first to say, "Push Granny off a cliff?"
Newt's entire political career has been based on destructive, vicious, negative attacks on his opponents. In the 1990s, his GOPAC produced "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control," an infamous list of words that Gingrich said Republicans should use to smear and denigrate their opponents. Among the suggested words was “destructive,” along with “traitors,” “sick,” and “betray.” Gingrich perfected the kind of hyper-partisan politics of destruction that are currently making it harder to run the country, and harder to attract decent people to run for office. Obviously, decency hasn’t been a barrier for Newt’s own ambitions.
WCA,
BOTH sides use contemptible language. It is disgusting. I hate it. It serves no purpose but to encourage more hate and division. This garbage has to stop. And as I posted below, shame on Rep. Waxman!
You mean "tell the truth?"Nisl?
BTYW--Gingrich wrote the book on this. Copies are still floating around.
Amazing....a First Read headline not spun for exaggeration to make a Republican look bad.
Actually makes Democrat Waxman look like a zealot
Keep this up, Frank Thorp, your Obama second term public-sector job will be taken by some ABC news flack...
So Waxman doesnt want to build pipelines and wants to kill 20,000 jobs, and for that matter the entire oil industry because of "climate change"....he is a true extremist ...even though the US is only a miniscule part of alleged greenhouse gases!
Boob as a Pipefitter/Plumber I would like to say that there is no freakin' way it would create that many jobs...How about we build solar steam plants that actually take engineering and many workers to complete hell I am even for nuclear but dirty tar through a pipeline that will create almost no permanent jobs and very few Fitter and Welder jobs even a few operating engineers to landscape and some unskilled central/south american exploited temp labor is not gonna do anything for jobs or gas prices...That fuel is headed to countries elsewhere any way...If you didn't notice there are refineries closer that it already goes to but they are not a seaport so just go back to LUSH DIMBULB and you will be filled with more useless drug induced drivel
sw philly,
South Dakota just passed a new permit for a oil refinery to be built in their state. SD is alot closer to the sand oil deposits of Canada and ND than Texas. But if you just want to find a way to ship oil to China you need a seaport.
Northstar,
Exactly....
Rep. Waxman, you may disagree with the opposition party, but to call them "terriosts" and "hostage takers" is contemptible. Shame on you sir!
Well phine he is just following Joe Biden's lead from last summer.
If it's Ok for the VP it ought to be good enough for him.
Both side have issues phine, but I don't ever remember Republicans calling Democrats terrorists.
WCA,
I wasn't on here then, but it was despicable from the VP and it is now. I don't care who you are or what side of the aisle you are on. I said it to Mr. phinephancy then, and I am saying it to you now.
(Mr. phinephancy is currently mad at all politicians. A superpac ad showed up on ESPN)
Can't you just be satisfied we agree on something?
Not ESPN! Is nothing sacred anymore???????????
We agree on a lot of things phine, just not the stuff, it seems, that they keep posting on FR.
WCA,
I am surprised you couldn't hear his scream from Florida to Detroit! (And I haven't heard such colorful language since he went to a Navy reunion!)
Would you 2 stop acting like terrorist's.......
phincphancy--Happens to fairly characterize the tactics of the Republican House in the last 2 years
opajack,
That type of language is not useful. All it does (just read the postings on all the threads) is promote more hate. Heck, yeah, one can disagree with each other, but destructive name calling only heightens the tension and produces no positive results. And the people who suffer from this? The American people.
Phinephancy, You are right the only people that suffer are the American people. We can disagree on some subjects but probably have more in common than either political wants us to believe.
Well, the fact is the GOPTPers in Congress did take the American people and democratic government hostage. Call it what it was. Terrorists is a bit much but hey, republicans have been calling President Obama and democrats a whole lot worse than hostage takers and terrorists for a long time. Seems to me the faux outrage I'm reading here is looking at one side and not the other.
opajack, true.
.
It was a bad comparison. Mixing metaphors always weakens them. Are Republicans legislative hostage takers? Yes. But most hostage takers are not terrorists, so let's leave the 'T' word out of the rhetoric, please.
Nathan,
I wouldn't use hostage either. Leverage, yes. Hostage, no. The connotations are too ugly, and promote more hate.
I love that show. Timothy Hutton is awesome and every week's bad guy reminds me of Mitt Romney.
So, if Republicans are terrorists for wanting to include jobs in a bill, are Democrats murderers for letting House bills die in the Senate? How crazy has Washington really become?
Mr. Waxman will apologize for his comments I'm sure.
Candice,
Your comments, while I see the point, do not help. Words like "hostage" , "terrorist" and "murderers" do not belong in the public discourse of policy matters. We don't need to lower ourselves to that level, all it does is cause more harm.
Bela G,
I would be more than happy to lend you some punctuation.
. ? ! : ; " " ( )
Help yourself.
Northstar,
A similar suggestion was made in another post today, but Bela G. can't read (and thus it's no surprise she can't write), so she didn't take advantage of it. It was kind of you to offer, though, and I hope she appreciates it.
Phine, you may be onto someting there, unfortunately you have to apply that to your compatriots as well.
easy northstar, belas use of the return key helped a lot.
Candice didn't follow your play on words at first read, but I do now. Cool.
I think my dentist act like a terrorist sometimes....
Now dentists can be considered that - especially when drilling on teeth! LOL
GOP terrorists 4 leg tactix?
To whose surprise? Gotta hand it to the GOP. They know how to lead the Democrats around by the nose like little puppy dogs. They even got em' to buy in to their rhetoric! We call them fiscal "conservatives" if we want to indicate frugality, yet modern Repubs are anything but.
Another example? The payroll tax cut. Repubs have been trying to destroy and defund Social Security for years. Now they have the Democrats voting FOR a payroll tax cut that was a GOP idea in the first place. Now even the President is touting it like he is proud of voting to defund Soc. Sec. Thanks!
They call them "Tax-and-Spend Liberals", but Democrats tried to implement PAYGO, have proposed deeper budget cuts, and delivery balanced budgets; far better than Repubs ever did. A repub has never, ever delivered a balanced budget in my lifetime.
Bush tax cuts are still going on cause Repubs beat the Dems on that one too. EFCA was never passed, and likely never will be with the Dems as our champions.
Tough to support the flaccid Dems, but they still beat repubs.
This situation is what I hope to change when I go to Washington next month.
phinephancy,
I was hoping you would get my point - that all of this is so absurd. It is inappropriate and does not belong in what should be reasonable and civil discourse.
That grown men and women who are supposed to represent the rest of us, can't sit back, grow up and try to understand (not agree with - but try to understand) the other's point of view is very sad, and tantrums and rhetoric get intolerable after awhile.
Same holds true on First Read, actually.
Candice,
Isn't that a little disingenuous of you? I've seen some fairly negative--bordering on nasty-comments from you from time to time.
Jack,
No. I don't think disingenuous. Everyone blurts out a negative, and sometimes over-the-top, comment once in awhile. Some more than others, of course. I wasn't criticizing. Just making an observation. And, I'm probably more in the middle than you perceive. Nasty? I try desperately not to be "nasty". Do you?
You mean Republicans cut off peoples heads? I like the way you can't call the Taliban or AL Quieda terrorsts
but you can call a fellow American a terrorist. Only liberals have no shame.
Take a look around, Mr. Waxman. We are ALREADY using oil, and will be for the foreseeable future. This pipeline will just mean that the oil we're using is from our own continent rather than the Middle East in greater proportions.
So either you can let this pipeline through in some form or another, or they'll just sell the oil to China, it will get used anyway, and the US will have a harder time meeting its energy needs in the short-term. For that, FOR THAT, you use a severely-charged term like "terrorist" to describe people who don't agree with you and don't just roll over and let you do whatever you want. Stay classy, chief.
So we get Waxman's diatribe, no Republican response and this is "journalism" how? A CA Congressman calling others stupid as his home state falls into the San Andreas fault of financial disaster 2nd only to Illinois. The sponsor of Cap and Trade legislation that would have crippled the economy and probably caused another depression gets to call others names as his party's ideas are an albatross around the neck of job growth. Get the man a new irony meter.
So in this brave new world of "civlilty" we're defining "terrorism" as "a legislative act that every split congress has used since the creation of this nation"?
Weird... I guess if we want to fight terorists we can just blow up Congress... trust me, they'd all do this for their pet projects so they're all "terrorists", even Waxman... right?
Or is this anohter one of those things that are only bad when Republcaisn do it? If you're going to hold two compleley separate sets of standards that differ based on party afilliation you're going to confuse people... maybe we just have one set of standards; which is iehter that all Congressmen who have or would do this are terrorists, or aren't terrorists.
I know Reid has done this; so do we execute him as a terroist too? Or do we admit that maybe this isn't entirely accurate?
Somehow I suspect the answer will be "neither, Republcaisn are evil... blah blah blah" but I figured I'd at least give the Democrats a chance to be logically consistent before I continue laughing and mocking them.
lisa s--phinefancy--we should not speak truth to power because it results in "hate"? "the most important thing we can do is make sure Obama is a one-term president" Really? Hate-mongers need to be called out.
you equating the desire for a change of president with hate speaks volumes about you. how about acting a little older than 12? hmm?
by the way, was (almost all of) the media and everyone on the left 'hate mongers' for constantly lashing out about bush? get a freaking clue and stop talking in ridiculous, irrational straw men.
" we almost couldn't pay our debts because the Republicans wanted to hold that legislation hostage"
Most folks have that problem because they have been spending too much, not because of what someone else is doing
If you live above your means long enough, the day will come when you are forced to live below them
Yes, because the left NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVER uses the same EXACT tactic.
That's how our government now runs: They expect you to forget things as recent as two or three years ago.
THROW THEM ALLLLLLLLLLLLL OUT. I'm sick of Democans and Republicrats.
Oh and how about there being 18 jobs bills on Harry Reid's desk which he refuses to take up?
Gee Henry, after 3 years of my now ex-party
calling my Democratic family racists, teabaggers, et al, by default all because
they simply own a company and employ folks or is it that they’re white and
elderly? This out of control shotgun approach Henry should have been better planned
and that comes from the top. As a result the party has lost a lot of supporters
especially small to medium business owners who were not progressives but Democrats’
for years. Our local DNC precinct is now a key shop as well it should oh and
Henrey? You aint seen nothin yet. I know, folks will say you’re no Democrat nor
have you ever been a Democrat. What folks think of me is none of my business, I
know what has happened and this is friggin it.
Hilarious. The Republicans are terrorists because they won't bow to nut job Henry's hateful, extremist left wing demands. Henry is a fool and a dimwit but I guess he is just following B. Husein's orders. Isn't B. Hussein that guy who sagely assured us little people that he was so wise he'd close the partisan divide?