After the euphoria of a couple of weeks ago, in which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced a high-risk "Go Big or Go Home" strategy of attaching a climate bill to a politically popular spill bill (e.g., S.3516), sober reality set in as the Senators realized they didn't have 60 votes for any climate bill to attach to the spill bill. Whoops.
Democratic Senators on recess: They're still bickering, they're still dithering about getting to 60 votes, they're running out of time, and they're preparing to go medium rather than go big. One major player is missing in action, and another has his own personal enthusiasm gap. And it's becoming increasingly likely that whatever will be put forth can't be labeled a climate bill. "The climate debate is like Weekend at Bernie's: the enviros are walking around like this thing is still alive, but we can all see it’s dead," says a lobbyist.
continued at Daily Kos....
