Redstate

....In Which Nancy Pelosi Tries an End-Run Around John Dingell on Global Warming

By Pat Cleary Posted in Congress — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Quite a storm a-brewin' among the Dems over in the House of Representatives, a storm we would admit --unlike hurricanes -- is caused by global warming.

Read on...

Here's an excellent Q&A with Energy Committee Chair John Dingell (D-MI), the Dean of the House of Representatives, the longest-serving member. In it, he -- gasp -- sounds downright deliberative on the matter of global warming, saying (correctly) that it is a complicated issue with lots of "theories" and that Congress ought to move cautiously in this area.

Well, it seems that Speaker Pelosi is a little impatient with Rep. Dingell's pace and with his stubborn insistence to get the facts before legislating. Darn that Dingell. So yesterday she announced the formation of a new committee that would look into global warming, in the process bypassing Dingell's deliberation. The new committee will be led by Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) an adherent of Pelosi's -- and Al Gore's -- global warming views, facts be damned.

According to this AP story, Dingell was typically glib in his reaction: "We should probably name it the committee on world travel and junkets," he said. But he didn't stop there, adding, "We're just empowering a bunch of enthusiastic amateurs to go around and make speeches and make commitments that will be very difficult to honor." We happen to agree.

And finally, there was this from Dingell about this new end-run Committee: "They're going to get under the feet of and interfere with those who are trying to do a decent job of legislating...I'm unaware of anything they will do that will be of any value." Anyone who's spent any time in Washington has seen people get crosswise with "Big John." Let's just say the list of those who have won out over Dingell is small, maybe even non-existent. This will likely not turn out any differently.

It's hard not to come down on the side of due deliberation and fact-finding. Once the science on both sides of this issue is known, it should sober even the enthusiastic amateurs on the committee on world travel and junkets.