At least, that's what it looks like.
Mr. Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said in a sharply worded letter on Saturday that he would no longer participate in negotiations on the energy bill, throwing its already cloudy prospects deeper into doubt. He had been working for months with Senators John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, on the a legislation, which they were scheduled to announce with considerable fanfare on Monday morning. That announcement has been indefinitely postponed.
In his letter to his two colleagues, Mr. Graham said that he was troubled by reports that the Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, and the White House were planning to take up an immigration measure before the energy bill. Mr. Graham has worked with Democrats in the past on immigration matters and was expected to be an important bridge to Republicans on that issue, as well as on energy. ...NYT
John Kerry is pretty pessimistic about forward movement in an energy bill now.
There's plenty of cause for pessimism if the Times' assessment is correct. Challenges to weakened Democratic members of the House are occurring across the country, leaving the possibility that Congress could change hands.
The fight for the midterm elections is not confined to traditional battlegrounds, where Republicans and Democrats often swap seats every few cycles. In the Senate, Democrats are struggling to hold on to, among others, seats once held by President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Democrats are preparing to lose as many as 30 House seats — including a wave of first-term members — and Republicans have expanded their sights to places where political challenges seldom develop.“It’s not a lifetime appointment,” said Sean Duffy, a Republican district attorney here in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, where he has established himself as one of the most aggressive challengers to Mr. Obey since he went to Washington in 1969. “There are changes in this country going on, and people aren’t happy.” ...NYT
On the other hand, over the past week we've been treated to a much tougher, more acerbic President Obama. Frank Rich notes:
A year ago, President Obama had delivered an address labeling the financial crisis a “perfect storm” — the term long favored by Robert Rubin, the discredited guru of bailed-out Citigroup and mentor to many on the White House economic team. At Cooper Union on Thursday, the president, while far from fiery, was no longer likening the calamity to a natural disaster beyond anyone’s control. He chastised those in the financial sector who saw the free market as “a free license to take whatever you can get, however you can get it.” He was no longer describing Blankfein, sitting before him, as a “very savvy” businessman — a compliment he had bestowed on him and Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase just 10 weeks earlier.
Good, but not great. It took Bill Clinton to own up to the whole truth.
A year ago, President Obama had delivered an address labeling the financial crisis a “perfect storm” — the term long favored by Robert Rubin, the discredited guru of bailed-out Citigroup and mentor to many on the White House economic team. At Cooper Union on Thursday, the president, while far from fiery, was no longer likening the calamity to a natural disaster beyond anyone’s control. He chastised those in the financial sector who saw the free market as “a free license to take whatever you can get, however you can get it.” He was no longer describing Blankfein, sitting before him, as a “very savvy” businessman — a compliment he had bestowed on him and Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase just 10 weeks earlier.
The trouble is, Goldman Sachs' Lloyd Blankfein and the rest are fighting on, deeply unwilling to let go of the gambling habit we've all paid so dearly for. At some point we're going to have to grow up, quit compromising with malefactors, and agree on a financial system which isn't founded on uncontrollable exploitation.
Meanwhile, as Rich notes, "the fact remains that those who truly hurt America are laughing harder still, all the way to the bank." That includes most of the Republican party now, and the people who are working so hard to remove any possibility of reform from Congress, whether we're talking about our sources of energy, our immigration policies or the incestuous connections between Wall Street and elected representatives.
