A Climate Of Change

Moving on to some other events of the day, today's Senate Environment and Public Works committee vote on climate change legislation passed easily, due to the fact all the Republicans walked out.

With Republican boycotting the proceedings, Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) relied on a little used interpretation of committee rules to move the legislation. Traditionally, two minority members are required to conduct committee business.

Boxer said that she passed the bill “in full accordance with long-standing committee and Senate rules.”

“This is not a procedure we wanted; it’s a procedure that’s available to us,” said Boxer. “The majority has to be able to do its work…otherwise the whole Senate could come to a screeching halt.”

Republicans called Boxer's move the “nuclear option,” warning that it violated decades of committee precedent.

“I am here to appeal to you and the members of the committee,” Sen. Jim Inhofe, the top Republican on the committee, said in a brief statement. “In the history of this committee, we have not been able to find a time when the bill has been marked up without minority.”

Inhofe can complain all he wants to, but the fact of the matter is he simply decided to pick up his ball and go home like a petulant child rather than see this legislation pass, and now he's claiming the vote was invalid because there were no Republicans present. If inhofe is right, then the GOP can simply stop every piece of legislation they don't like, and nothing will ever get voted on. I'm fine with that, just as long as Inhofe extends Democrats the same courtesy. The odds of that happening are zero, of course.

But then again, petulant childishness is what the GOP excels in. Why debate the laws or work with Democrats when you can storm out and complain to reporters about everything Democrats try to do?