This is why we lose:
Senate Democrats are working on plans to hold a vote authorizing construction of the Keystone XL pipeline — approval that Democrats believe might bolster the chances of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), who faces a tough runoff election next month.
It was not immediately clear Tuesday night whether Republicans would consent to proceeding with such a vote during the lame-duck session that begins on Wednesday — especially given the high stakes surrounding Landrieu’s reelection race. Such a move would also draw howls from the environmental movement who had hoped that President Obama would resolve a years-long dispute over a long-awaited energy project in their favor.
Several Senate Democratic aides confirmed on Tuesday evening that talks are underway to allow for a vote authorizing construction of the pipeline in the coming days. The aides, who were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said that details on language of the bill authorizing and its timing were not yet settled, but likely would be among the topics of conversation as Congress reconvenes Wednesday.
Landrieu is expected to make a formal announcement of plans to hold a vote later Tuesday or on Wednesday, the aides said.
Well, that makes a shitload of sense. The Senate is out of our control until the next election when we might pick up a few seats, so Landrieu’s seat really isn’t that important now (although I do agree that every seat is important). The DSCC has basically pulled the plug on the campaign, and the polls show her behind. She’s not going to win, and really, no one is going to notice.
So why on earth would the Democratic party cave on Keystone? Why? What is the possible point? It will not do anything for the economy, it is not going to have an impact on domestic fuel prices, this is Canadian oil drawn from the most environmentally damaging way possible, and it is going to infuriate environmental groups. Allowing this vote does nothing but show the Democrats are spineless and many of them don’t stand for anything.
Trust me, we don’t need this stunt to provide us more proof.
schrodinger's cat
Democrats need to show some spine. Voters don’t like spineless politicians.
trollhattan
I don’t understand the south.
The end.
This OTOH put a spring in my step.
The Republicans (or whoever the fvck it was that funded all those damn ads) spend several metric buttloads of cash to unseat Bera and I’d love to see them choke on their own bile should he hold on and win.
donovong
Because a significant number of Democrats are craven, spineless twits? And always have been and will always be?
Twas ever thus….
myiq2xu
I sense . . . butthurt.
Baud
@schrodinger’s cat:
Democrats could have all the spine in the world, and voters would still hate them.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
and most of the commentary I’ve read said it’s going to Asia. This is some dumb shit.
More good news, Jon Tester– pro-Keystone, pro-coal, Dream Act filibuster–wants to take over the DSCC for the 2016 cycle
The (really) good news: rumor has it E Warren will be joining the leadership team.
schrodinger's cat
@Baud: Yes some voters would hate the Democrats even if they found a cure to cancer, but not all. Obama did win by bigger margins than Bush, didn’t he?
YellowJournalism
Because they were willing to vote for it any way, and this gives them a “had no choice” excuse.
Baud
@schrodinger’s cat:
Non-traditional voters like Obama, and good for them. Regular voters hate Democrats.
Nancy Pelosi’s house passed a climate change bill, and she lost her majority. The Senate just spent two years not approving the Keystone Pipeline, and Dems just lost their majority. I wished voters cared more about the environment, but there is no evidence that they do if it means supporting Democrats.
That said, I agree that this stunt won’t result in anything positive for Landrieu or anyone else.
JPL
So a vote in which the republican majority gets credit. Great. How about voting on judges who can make a difference.
Anne Laurie
Yeah, first the DSCC pulls their ad money at the worst possible moment, then Landrieu makes a pitch that’s popular with her local media (even if it’s environmentally disastrous and probably won’t provide enough votes). Gosh, why can’t the little lady just lose gracefully, and provide a good example for the next generation of Democratic women?
I’d give a finger or three toes if it would stop the Keystone pipeline, but the national Dems have given Landrieu exactly no reason to shut up and go away quietly, have they?
JPL
@Baud: They need to change the message. A Fox news watcher tried to speak to me about climate and I simply said I’m not a supporter of pollution. It adds to our health care costs.
JPL
@Anne Laurie: She’s still going to lose and the pipeline is not going to create all these magical jobs.
Keith G
1) It is not that big of an issue for most of the US. 2) Opposing it is a loser for the Dems. 3) Obama is not going to fight against it – I have heard.
So, it’s time to let it go and fight other battles that have better odds. The Landrieu story is just a ruse.
srv
Good. Faux issue. Obama will have to stop golfing and make a decision. The workers are waiting.
Baud
@Keith G:
That’s another thing. The whole pipeline issue never should have become a cause celebre. The tar sands oil is already been shipped through the U.S. They want the pipeline because it’s cheaper.
Anne Laurie
@JPL: And the President — who is not running for a third term — could stop this whole Keystone charade with an executive order. But the only people talking about that are the craziest far-leftist DFHs, so why waste the effort?
schrodinger's cat
@Baud: Why are you marginalizing yourself and others who voted for Obama by calling them non-traditional, why do the Republicans get to define what regular is?
hildebrand
@srv: Mr. Fournier, is that you?
Baud
@schrodinger’s cat:
I was a regular voter before Obama, and will always be. But the difference in Obama’s margin of victory, from what I’ve seen, came from people who don’t vote consistently. As the midterms show, those voters have not become regular voters like me and (I’m assuming) you.
schrodinger's cat
@Baud: OK I think I misunderstood what you meant by regular. Sorry.
ETA: You meant people who vote regularly, not “regular” as in normal people.
Baud
@schrodinger’s cat:
Yeah, of course.
Hal
I’m conflicted. Shipping oil by tank car seems more dangerous and more likely to affect residential areas than a pipeline (depending on where it travels), so unless this is a cessation of tar sands oil all together, is the pipeline at least minimally safer?
One thing that is certain is that the claims of job creation are absolutely false. Landrieu seems toast as well, so I think claiming this will help her is bogus. Maybe she has a job lined up in Alberta after the election.
Goblue72
Cuz some want the chance to suck on that sweet sweet payola from oil companies. And some are scared of their own voters in purple districts. And they all figure no one is going to remember or care in 2016.
Jinchi
Motivate your base by kicking them after every loss? Strange that people aren’t particularly motivated to vote for Democrats.
Morzer
I wish I could play po.ker with the people running the Democratic party’s strategy. I have a feeling that there are millions of dollars waiting to surrender their way into my pocket if I just frown slightly.
Bobby B.
I’ll wish Democrats a hot place in Hell, roasting on top of the Republicans. In 10 years the Capitol Building will be an armed fortress to fend off angry mobs. Maybe sooner.
raven
Waaaaa waaaa waaaaa. . .
Jinchi
@Hal:The purpose of the pipeline is to make it cheaper develop the tar sands. Without a pipeline the tar sands are expensive and most of the oil will stay in the ground. Once built, tapping the tar sands is guaranteed.
Did we mention that the tar sands are a climate time bomb waiting to explode.
This is a present to the Koch Brothers and the oil industry following a successful campaign to buy Congress. Strange that the Democrats would want to give it to them.
srv
@Jinchi: Your base doesn’t vote. And they aren’t going to vote for Hillary. Another politician who can’t decide on Keystone.
Morzer
@raven:
“the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge…”
How was your birthday? Did you paint the town.. well, maybe not red, but blue?
Heliopause
“Cave”? Has the party ever taken a position to cave on?
mai naem mobile
I say go for the pipeline but make sure it goes through some valuable land preferably residential land owned by republicans who donated big $$$ to the gop campaigns, and the reddest of red areas and no blue areas.
raven
@Morzer: It was swell, we drove up through the mountains to Chattannoga and then went to Chickamauga yesterday at sunrise.
thx
Morzer
@Heliopause:
Well, they’ve taken the position of needing to think about it some more. Sometimes. When they felt particularly courageous.
Morzer
@raven:
Sounds like an excellent day. Did you eat of the fat of the land, ride upon their horses and make their women weep?
raven
@Morzer: I made so much Cuban garlic chicken that we just picnicked on mountain tops!
I’ve posted this already but here’s sunset from the bridge in Chattanooga.
Mike in NC
Back in the Reagan era I recall a cartoon by Oliphant (?) showing Senate Democrats checking their spines at a coat closet as they entered the chamber to vote. Good to see the tradition being upheld.
Steve
John since you’re relatively new to this side of the politics, let me help you out. You ask why would the Dems cave on issues dear to their base? Why do the swallows return to Capistrano year after year? Why do monarch butterflies migrate to Mexico annually? Why does a bear shit in the woods? Because that’s what they do. You don’t have to understand it and you probably can’t change it but it’s still the only choice we have.
Baud
@efgoldman:
I agree with all that. Time only marches forward, and that’s all we can do too.
Morzer
@raven:
That is one hell of a fine picture, raven. What did you take it with?
Cuban garlic chicken sounds admirable. Did you get any cool presents for the great day?
raven
@Baud: Further!
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Keith G: Basically agreed.
Canada is going to keep dredging up that oil as long as Harper (and those like him) are in power. If Keysone XL isn’t built, Canada will just speed-up construction of the various pipelines that are already in the planning stages.
http://insideclimatenews.org/sites/default/files/tarsandspipelineboomapril2012InsideClimateNews_0.jpg
I have expected Obama to approve Keystone XL as well, but I always figured he was going to use it as a bargaining chip to force other CO2 reductions to keep his promise that it “wouldn’t cause a net increase in emissions” (or whatever his phrasing was). He’s not king. He knows that the Senate wants it built and he can’t realistically block it if the fact of the matter is that the oil is going to come to market and is going to be burnt. His best hope was always to get something meaningful in return.
If the Senate rams through some bill that doesn’t have an offset, then it will blow up in the Democrats faces. If there is a sensible offset, then everyone can declare a kind of victory and the issue will be finally off the table. And we can finally move on to the big issue of a carbon tax or similar…
We’ll see what happens. I’m not optimistic though…
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@raven:
That’s a tripped out ride.
raven
@Morzer: Canon T3. The cuban chicken is complex. Brine, marinate, brown, braise, rebrown and reduce marinade for sauce!
I have made enough of a stink about gifts that I didn’t get any. My bride is sad but is ok with me making presents when we go to the beach next week. I like not being too guilty about going out on deep sea trips.
raven
@Baud: Ken Keysey’s bus. You are either on the bus or off the bus.
Keith G
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Yeah, I never thought Obama was against XL, but there were good reasons (from his point of view $$$$) to act as if he were for the last two election cycles.
Morzer
@raven:
Out of interest, what’s your objection to gifts? I am genuinely curious to know, but if you don’t feel like baring your feathery soul in public, I would understand completely.
Mandalay
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
Not really; Canada is only going to keep dredging up that oil as long as it is economically viable, and that isn’t the case right now….
catbirdman
@trollhattan: My fellow Anteater and Beta — go Ami!
schrodinger's cat
@raven: How was your birthday?
catbirdman
Seriously, people, just vote every time and vote Democrat unless there is some overwhelmingly obvious reason not to. It’s the only logical thing for a person to do if they care about science and/or public policy. If you don’t think science and/or public policy are important causes — for whatever reason — then vote Republican. But VOTE! It is not at all difficult to register and get a mail-in ballot sent to your home every time there’s an election, and then it takes about 15 minutes to read the ballot, cast your ballot, put a stamp on it, and put it in the mailbox. Isn’t it really that simple? I don’t understand why people act like voting is confusing or difficult. We are getting what we deserve, because people make up excuses for not voting, or for voting Republican. Sorry, I know this is obvious on a site like this, but it’s infuriating to me to read comments above talking about some nuanced reason why Republicans won so many races. Of course that didn’t happen here in California, so is there some obvious reason why California was different than the rest of the country?
trollhattan
@raven:
Have you checked to see whether you’re in a Spielberg movie? Because Bad Things are about to happen if you are.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Mandalay: Yeah, the cost is an issue. It always is. But there’s a reasonable case to be made that the recent drop is temporary and unlikely to continue falling much farther. Though there’s also a case to be made that the price drop is likely to continue as too many producers are too interested in pumping what they can for domestic reasons (sometimes out of the central government’s control), and there’s even a danger of a deflationary spiral.
E.g. http://ourfiniteworld.com/2014/11/05/oil-price-slide-no-good-way-out/
Presumably a similar dynamic is going on in Alberta.
Is Gail right? Who knows. But I do think there will be continued pressure to dredge the Alberta Tar Sands even after oil is “too cheap” – if it even gets to that point. Banks want to be paid.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
FromTheBackOfTheRoom
I’m always tickled to read these rants against “the Democrats” or the “Democratic Leadership” that never manage to indict nor even mention the Holy “O”.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@catbirdman: It’s not easy to vote absentee in every state. Some states make it unreasonably difficult. Consider Virginia (4 page PDF). Notice the scary warning:
You want to risk going to jail for 10 years by making a mistake on a form or fibbing about how long it takes to drive to work?
That’s an example of how some states make it difficult for people to vote. It’s not unique.
Of course, voting should be universally easy and convenient. It isn’t.
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
cckids
@mai naem mobile:
The part that goes through Nebraska & part of Kansas goes over the Ogallala aquifer, one of the largest aquifers in the world, which supplies 30% of the irrigation water in America. All of Keystone’s pipelines leak. When this one does, how much irreversible damage will it do?
I fully empathize with the “they made their bed, let them lie in it”, but this isn’t just about the jackasses who elected all Repubs who will vote opposite their constituent’s interests.
mclaren
Because Democrats are just as captive and enslaved by giant corporations and Wall Street financial crime lords and the military/prison/police/surveillance/torture complex as Republicans are…but Democrats need to pretend they aren’t in order to get elected. So the instant Democrats lose a major election, they rush to fellate their corporate/military owners so hard the backs of their heads cave in.
Republicans, on the other, are proud of being owned and enslaved by giant corporations and Wall Street financial crime lords, so Repubs boast about selling out their constituents before, during, and after elections.
Shrodinger’s cat asserts:
On the contrary, voters love spineless politicians. It shows the voters the people they’ve elected are just like the voters themselves, and this gives voters a warm & comfy feeling. Thus the continuing popularity of Barack Obama.
Hal remarks:
Haven’t you learned yet, silly rabbit?
All claims of job creation in the 21st century are false. Always. All the time.
The U.S. economy has stopped creating jobs. In order to make money in the U.S. economy in 2014, you must destroy jobs. The more jobs you can destroy (google’s driverless car, craigslist putting newspapers out of business, spotify starving musicians by playing their music millions of times and paying out $1.50 in royalties, etc., etc. etc.), the more money you make.
The U.S. economy is now like flesh-eating staphlococcus. It’s eating itself and self-destructing at a phenomenal rate. Very soon the U.S. economy with be like the last act of the 1960 film SPARTACUS, with the last two slaves fighting to the death for the amusement of the elites.
Keith P
There’s a line of Friends that this reminds me of, where Joey locked himself in a cabinet to prove he could, only to get robbed by the guys he was showing. He asked something like “Guess what I’m gonna do when I find them?” to which Chandler goes, “BEND OVER??!???!”
FlipYrWhig
You know who’s pretty keen on Keystone? Labor. Kind of what passes for “the base” in a lot of the Cracker Belt. But, no, must be a corrupt, inexplicable mystery.
Jinchi
@catbirdman:
This is not an argument. 65% of eligible voters decided it wasn’t worth the trouble to get out and vote this election. You need to convince them, not the readers of this blog.
Actually, yes there is. We’ve got an extremely effective governor who laid out a very specific plan for ending the budget crisis and turning around the economy in the state. Then he did the hard work of getting that plan enacted. Results matter.
Senate Democrats spent the first four years of Obama’s presidency explaining all the reasons that the Senate rules had them tied in knots. I don’t expect Mitch McConnell to have the same problem. Democrats need to figure out how to do their job before they complain about voter apathy.
Tree With Water
Why hasn’t Obama promised democrats that he will veto this Canadian death funnel? Why hasn’t Hillary Clinton weighed in with her opposition? The GOP has declared its passage an immediate priority. Everyone has had years to make up their mind about it. It’s long past time each deign inform inform the democratic rank and file of where they stand. Obama because he already has the job, and Clinton because she wants it.
mclaren
Because both Obama and Hillary love the Keystone XL pipeline. Their corporate masters have spoken, and the two of ’em can’t wait to obey.
So it goes with Democrats.
Morzer
@mclaren:
Which is why six years later…
Oh never mind. Which, come to think of it, might as well be the Words of House Mclaren.
mclaren
Gin and taco’s necropsy on what remains of the so-called frontal lobes of America’s elecorate:
Par for the course for the spoiled infantile gullible American people. The American people demand to roar around their distant isoalted suburbs in gas-guzzling SUVs…yet explode with rage every time America finds itself embroiled in a war in the middle east.
Hm. Could there be a connection between the two…?
Not as far as the American people can tell. Like a 2-year-old, the American people squeal for the whole quart of ice cream, then howl with rage after eating it when they discover it’s given ’em a tummy ache.
Or take America’s worship of guns, whereby your typical Americano roars with fury the instant any of our elected officials start making noises about limiting the sales of semi-automatic weapons…yet these selfsame Americanos shriek with red-faced hysteria every time some numbnut grabs an AK and blasts away at a movie theater full of women and children.
Hm. Could there be a connection between the two…?
Not in the American voter’s so-called mind.
Or consider the American’s craven worship of wealth, based on the foolish fantasy that s/he will soon become a billionaire just as soon as that part-time job as cashier at a 7-11 gives way to that CEO position that’ll open for hi/r any day now…yet the same ignorant gullible American whines with infantile pique upon learning that the rich are (predictably) asset-stripping and looting everything that isn’t nailed down, and destroying the middle class in the process.
Hm. Could there possibly exist a relationship between the two…?
Filed for your consideration (as Rod Serling would say) in the realm beyond logic, a shadowy world of self-delusion and idiocy formerly known as…THE TWILIGHT ZONE, and now called “the mind of the American voter circa 2014.”
Tree With Water
@mclaren: Mine wasn’t quite a rhetorical question, if only because I hold out a shred of gossamer hope that Obama will do the right thing, and that Clinton will support him.
mclaren
@Jinchi:
In reality, California is lying to itself, and California’s deluded voters are living in lala-land.
Source: Bloomberg BusinessWeek, April 2013.
That so-called “balanced budget” California’s boasting about? It’s about as real as one of those Hollywood car chases.
But when you live in a state of self-delusion like California so detached from reality that it needs a zip code starting with an imaginary number, that’s all standard stuff. Sure, houses can keep on costing $400,000 even though the average dual-income-no-kids couple makes $48,000 per year in California. Yeah, that’ll work! What’s the problem!
You betcha Californians can continue to roar around from suburbs to work and back again on 45-minute commutes while the world runs out of oil. Hey, why not? What’s the problem?
California is a case study of the dead end that living in a fantasy world slams you into head-on at 60 mph. Like a snake with its head chopped off, the state of California seems superficially to be going strong — but what you’re actually seeing are the involuntary death convulsions of a creature that’s already long gone.
In 2014, the state of California exhibits a fascinating state of necrotic vitality, much like a mass of maggots swarming and wiggling and writhing across a dead whale. “Wow, look at how lively that whale is!” the gullible observer might opine.
People who look closer see the truth.
Zinsky
Wow, just wow! The Democratic Party is the Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight. Why don’t they privatize Social Security, eliminate the EPA, pass the TPP and gut all social welfare programs, then they can be just like the Republicrap Party? Losers….
Zinsky
@mclaren:
Well put!
Robert Sneddon
@Baud: A pipeline is also safer. Tar sands oil is being shipped by rail tanker north to south through the US over ill-maintained rail lines, prone to derailments, weather problems and the like plus it’s taking up rail traffic slots that the coal industry needs to ship Wyoming coal to power plants like Labadie and elsewhere.
From what I understand most of the actual pipeline meant to transport Athabasca tarsands oil to the Gulf refineries is in place and in use, the Keystone XL part of it only adds a few links.
Robert Sneddon
@cckids: The Oglalla aquifer is riddled with tens of thousands of capped-off oil and gas wells drilled vertically through it in times past. They are rusting, unmaintained steel pipes filled with concrete leading directly into petrochemical strata with significant reserves of hydrocarbons left to enter the aquifer when, not if, the well jackets fail. One good earthquake would probably do it and there’s no way to stop the leaks when they occur.
If the Keystone pipeline has any significant spills, and it probably will during its operation, it will happen on the surface where it can be seen and dealt with. Sure it would be a really really great idea for the Athabasca tarsands to be left where they are and not transported anywhere to be burned in the air we breathe but that’s not going to happen because oil, even tarsands oil is like a buried layer of money just waiting to be dug up like a pirate’s treasure chest.
Brendan in NC
@catbirdman: Because voting for your elected officials is hard work. If it were easy, like voting for American Idol, they’d all do it. And they can vote for the singers as many times as they want. Unlike elections, where you only get one vote.
Sherparick
I would write and call your Senator’s office and tell them that this Koch brothers enrichment scheme and planet destruction project should be voted down.
This is what Keystone actually does: it will create a few thousand construction and spin off jobs for a few months while construction is completed, and then it will go away as this particular pipeline company has a business plan of letting its pipelines corrode and break rather than spend money on maintenance and upkeep. The particularly vile oil sands fluid flowing through this pipeline is particularly toxic and hard to clean up, so the inevitable leaks and spills will be particularly bad, this bill basically gives the pipeline operator freebie from all U.S. environmental laws and sets the venue of any court action in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (I believe they wrote this when the Federalist Society had a hammerlock on this Circuit, not so much now). And the whole design is for the tar sand oil to down to Houston for export abroad. Except for some U..S. refineries in the Houston and Port Arthur areas I expect the pipeline to have practically no impact on an 18 trillion dollar U.S. economy, although in the long term increase in greenhouse gases and resulting climate disruption will cost trillions of dollars.
By the way, environmental movement in the 1970s really use to move elections and defeat assholes. It was far more non-partisan, with lots of Republicans, but when Movement Conservatives started defeating those moderate Republicans, it it did not really intervene. And then when the South did the big flip from moderate and conservative blue dog Democrats to Movement Conservative Republicans in 1994, they found themselves with openly and militant anti-environmental congressional majorities for the first time in its history. Republicans currently fear being primaried from the right in red districts. Until they fear being primaried from environmental movement they is unlikely to be further progress.
Jado
Because caving on the XL signals to the big campaign contributors that the Dems are open for business.
Cashola reigns, morals are paintings on the wall, and scruples are Russian money.
Jinchi
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
First, it’s Canadian oil, let them bear the expense of building the pipeline if they want it. The pipeline has no real benefit for American citizens, but it involves real costs.
Second, we’ve known about the tar sands for decades, but it remained undeveloped because it wasn’t cost effective to extract it. There is a reason that so much effort is going into lobbying for the Keystone XL pipeline. The alternatives are all far worse for the bottom line.
This works the same way a carbon tax would. If the cost of extracting oil becomes more expensive, alternatives to that oil become more competitive and the oil stays in the ground.
brodertown
@Robert Sneddon: The portion of the aquifer that is riddled with oil wells was wrecked decades ago and is hundreds of miles from the proposed Keystone route. The original route tracked through one of the few remaining intact ecosystems in the plains (the Nebraska Sandhills) right through the heart of a large metapopulation of the federally threatened western prairie fringed orchid (in addition to thousands of acres of subirrigated wetland meadows with a water table within a meter or two of the surface most of the year. A surface leak in this area would be devastating (and would likely occur very close to the water table) – but hey, we’re talking flyover country here so who gives a fuck.
samiam
BAHAHahahaha. Why am I not surprised wr0ng [email protected] Cole believes the same thing as the orange satan. That dems lost because they weren’t progressive enough.
This is why I no longer see myself as being a progressive. Because of these dumb as can be arguments. Just as bad as the far right imho.
While the far right is constantly looking for reasons to hate on and vote against things. The far left is constantly looking for reasons not to have to get off their world of warcraft playing a$$es and vote at all!
Apathy is the enemy of good government. That is why not just any dems but good dems lose.
LAC
@samiam: worth the scrolling through mcclaren’s long winded screeds to read.