Dems Angry With Reid, Dorgan For Playing Footsie With Swift Boat Billionaire
There are some interesting tensions unfolding behind the scenes among Senate Dems over climate change, I’m told.
Specifically, Dems are grumbling that Senators Harry Reid and Byron Dorgan have been too willing to play footsie with T. Boone Pickens, the notorious Texas oil billionaire who spent millions bankrolling the Swift Boat Vets’ attacks on John Kerry and has recently gotten lots of ink for his wind energy proposals to reduce dependency on foreign oil.
What’s got Dems irked, a Dem aide says, is that Pickens will be a featured guest to talk energy policy at this week’s Senate leadership lunch with the Democratic Policy Committee, which is led by Dorgan. This helps Pickens build connections and credibility for his proposals among Congressional Dems, despite his fierce partisan opposition to Dem goals in the past.
“This guy spent millions smearing our 2004 nominee and endorsed Mccain over Obama,” the aide groused. “T. Boone has done his part to set back the environmental movement and we shouldn’t be giving him the royal treatment. He bankrolled the most expensive smear in campaign history and we’re standing in line to kiss his ass. We don’t need him, he needs us, and we’re building this guy up into something he’s not and never has been.”
It’s inside baseball, admittedly. But T. Boone is a major figure — he may have helped decide the 2004 election, changing the course of American history — and it’ll be interesting to track what he reaps from climate change reform in the age of Obama.
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One other thing is T Boone Pickens is a charlatan. He is pushing for green energy now because he knows its the future and he has himself set up to break the bank on it whenever we finally transition over. He is pushing wind farms because he will be the one profiting off building new ones. But he is still a republican at heart through and through and after legislation gets passed that enriches his pockets he will go right back to funding smear campaigns.
SG — yep, exactly what Dems are worried about. Dem leadership getting played by a guy who knows how to play folks pretty damn well.
Really big money always trumps politics and politicians. The Dems will be all in, looking for a winning hand from the money man.
Well the problem is Harry Reid never met a Republican whose @ss he didn’t want to kiss.
I’m SO SICK of Harry Reid.
And sgwhite and greg – yes, that’s just what they’re worried about and should be.
[pounding forehead on keyboard]
Greg – I don’t know how much time you may have spent at Eschaton reading comments, but a regular for years and years there died last night: Olav Glad and Big died suddenly of a brain aneurysm.
Just in case you knew him, or anyone else here did. I knew him in real space – he was living in ABQ with Lil Red. I’ve spent time with both of them and I’m just in shock.
Tena — very sorry to hear that. hope you’re okay.
Been hearing the same things and was going to write something later … now I’ll be citing here. I had sent the DPC some questions the other day, was going to give them until COB today to answer (which, obviously, they have yet to do).
Now, the insanity of this embrace is that The Pickens Plan is a Potemkin Village, on many levels, and is not good on fiscal, energy, or environmental grounds.
And, this is simply bad politics: what should be done is setting Pickens up as the extreme of legitimate debate. He is offering a fossil-fuel heavy (natural gas rather than oil) answer to our challenges, while admitting that Climate Change is a reality. This should be laid out, clearly, as the limit of legitimate debate and discussion — with some elements of Pickens concepts / plan worthy of inclusion — rather than embracing Pickens as some form of false messiah.
Re Pickens, see, for example:
http://getenergysmartnow.com/2009/03/10/t-boones-shell-game-one-look-at-the-numbers/ Lays out how his approach is not cost effective compared to other paths to reducing imported oil dependencies.
http://getenergysmartnow.com/2009/02/01/axis-of-perpetuating-pollution-peabody-pickens/ How the Pickens Plan doesn’t do anything to reduce our coal dependency (and thus acidification of oceans, CO2 emissions, mercury in environment, etc …)
http://getenergysmartnow.com/2008/08/26/the-good-the-bad-the-ugly-t-boone-pickens/ Laying out some strengths / weaknesses to the plan
@SGW: I agree about Pickens completely.
T. Boone doesn’t give a **** about wind power. He wants the electric distribution center – he wants to own the power lines that send the wind power to homes…he wants to own the electric grid.
He only planned (past-tense, he’s since scaled back his wind-farm plans) the massive wind farm because he would own the massive power lines that took all that electricity to the power companies. Once they depended on him to provide the power, he could set whatever price he wanted. And as the country needs more capacity, he could make a fortune.
But even MORE than that…his real stake is in Natural Gas. He was putting wind front and center, but the majority of his investment was in Natural Gas – which has it’s own environmental issues to deal with.
The man was doing all this for one reason: Money. Control major portions of the distribution lines for the electric grid, and trying to create a new dependance on a product he’s investing in (natural gas).
@Tena I read Atrios all the time but don’t comment there. I’m really sorry to hear about your friend. My condolences.
The OP is incorrect. Mr. Pickens specifically did NOT endorse anyone in the 2008 Presidential election and, in fact, met with both McCain and Obama to explain the Pickens Plan and the dangers of our dependence on foreign oil. The Senatorial aide should get his facts straight.
The first thing Democrats should do with Mr. Pickens is flatten his nose for the way he treated a true, honest American hero, John Kerry. As T-Boone is picking his teeth up off the floor, then we can begin discussing health care.
1. Pickens did not endorse McCain, though he misrepresented McCain’s positions re energy in several fora, implying (stating) a much different McCain plan than what was on the table. But, no, Pickens did not endorse nor contribute (post The Pickens Plan) either of the Presidential candidates and met with both McCain and Obama.
2. Re this, as the DPC staff didn’t respond to questions, just posted on DPC lunch tomorrow: http://getenergysmartnow.com/2009/07/29/senate-democratic-policy-committee-dpc-cozying-up-with-t-boone-pickens/
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