The consensus of the pundits appears to be the House flips to GOP, perhaps decisively, but the Senate stays Democratic.
With detailed analyses from Nate Silver and others for all to see, I’m not certain there’s any point in asking readers to offer your own specific predictions.
A favorite attack line of conservatives and/or disinformers is that progressives are elitists who supposedly “espouse their intellectual superiority.” The goal of this disingenuous attack is so that they can push the Big Oil, Corporate Polluter agenda and appear to care about the middle class, while putting the screws to them, and so they can undercut the credibility of all ‘experts,’ especially scientists, whose work is crucial to preserving clean-air, clean water, and a livable climate.
The attack is particularly laughable coming from elite disinformers who themselves treat the American public with so much disdain by lying non-stop to further an agenda that will enrich the rich and put the screws to pretty much everyone else.
Remember, perhaps the main reason the country has failed to act on climate change is the immoral, but brilliantly successful, disinformation campaign funded by Big Oil and billionaire polluters — the pollutocrats (see “From promoting acid rain to climate denial “” over 20 years of David Koch’s polluter front groups“) — and embraced by the elite conservative media, pundits, and politicians.
Now, those pollutocrats are pulling the strings of the Tea Party, in order to give a populist, grass-roots gloss to their corporatist agenda. Frank Rich makes this point in his Sunday piece, “The Grand Old Plot Against the Tea Party“:
Is Chevron backing a ‘bait-and-switch’ policy with Californians on ballot propositions? CAP’s Araceli Ruano has the answer.
As readers of this blog know, Tesoro and Valero have been slammed for sticking their nose – and their money – into California’s business. The two Texas oil companies are responsible for putting Proposition 23 on the ballot. Prop 23 would suspend California’s Global Warming Solutions Act until an arbitrary and unrelated unemployment number is reached and has spawned a national discussion on climate change.
The 2010 campaign season has seen a horde of climate zombies shuffling towards Washington, DC — hundreds of Republican candidates who question the threat of greenhouse pollution as a scientific conspiracy or hoax. A few Democrats have fought back against the Tea Party anti-science wave, making the argument that people who choose oil propaganda over scientific fact might not be the best leaders for this nation. Surveying the races, the Wonk Room has found climate hawks taking a stand for sanity against the climate zombies from coast to coast, including Gov. Deval Patrick (D-MA), Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), and Rep. Dan Maffei (D-NY), taking it to their challengers in debates, press conferences, and campaign ads:
– CA-SEN: Barbara Boxer
– CO-SEN: Michael Bennet
– NH-SEN: Paul Hodes
– PA-SEN: Joe Sestak
– WI-SEN: Russ Feingold
– IN-09: Baron Hill
– NY-25: Dan Maffei
– OR-01: David Wu
– RI-01: Dan Cicilline
– MA-GOV: Deval Patrick
– OR-GOV: John Kitzhaber
During the California GOP primary, millionaire executive Carly Fiorina mocked Sen. Barbara Boxer’s (D-CA) leadership on climate issues as being “worried about the weather” instead of terrorism. Boxer’s campaign quickly responded with a fundraising appeal that reminded voters that global warming is a very real threat to national security:
In Fiorina’s latest ad, she attacks Barbara’s work to reduce the threat of climate change as just being “worried about the weather” and dismisses any connection between climate change and national security. That’s just wrong. Many experts of every political party believe that climate change could pose a serious threat to our nation. That’s one reason why the CIA has established The Center on Climate Change and National Security. Apparently Fiorina has trouble keeping “climate” and “weather” straight — just like her supporter Sarah Palin.
After Republican candidate Ken Buck embraced Sen. Jim Inhofe’s (R-OK) radical conspiracy theory that “this global warming is the greatest hoax that has been perpetrated,” Sen. Michael Bennet’s (D-CO) campaign blasted back:
Ken Buck’s extreme stance on climate change is a threat to Colorado’s economy and could prove cataclysmic for our national security.
During the Republican primary to fill Sen. Judd Gregg’s (R-NH) seat, U.S. Senate candidate Kelly Ayotte agreed with her competitors that global warming is a hoax. In September, Rep. Paul Hodes (D-NH) laid out the consequences of her denial of reality in a post to Daily Kos and Blue New Hampshire:
The bottom line is that Kelly Ayotte has as many doubts about global warming as I have about her ability to stand up to her special interest donors in the oil and coal industry. Global warming is not something this country should be taking lightly. It’s a serious threat not just for our environment, but for the economic livelihood of generations to come. Kelly Ayotte has dismissed global warming and told the Granite State she doesn’t believe that it’s real. I think it’s time we stop denying and instead start applying initiatives to lessen the devastating effects of carbon emissions. It’s no longer optional – it’s absolutely crucial to protect the country we’re trying to leave to our children and our grandchildren.
After ThinkProgress reported that Rep. Pat Toomey (R-PA) said climate science is “still very much disputed, and it’s been debated,” Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) blasted out a press release hitting Toomey for having a “position that puts him in the same camp as fellow Tea Party-backed Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell, but at odds with broad and nearly unanimous scientific consensus”:
This is just the latest example of Congressman Toomey’s refusal to hear perspectives that don’t fit into his own narrow mindset, even if those perspectives are backed by a large volume of credible evidence. But try as he might, Toomey can’t escape from the facts. Pennsylvania needs a public servant dedicated to finding practical solutions to the problems we face, not another closed-minded ideologue bent on insisting that the “world is flat.”
There still seems to be some confusion on this basic question.
A year ago, NASA scientist Gavin Schmidt was asked on RealClimate: “What percentage of global warming is due to human causes vs. natural causes?” His answer is straightforward:
This is fourth in a multi-part series by William Becker, executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project.
It’s never too early for a president to think about his legacy. Barack Obama has given hints he’s already thinking about his. Last January, he told Diane Sawyer:
Florida will build nation’s first high-speed rail corridor
As the Obama Administration pushes for high-speed rail networks across the country, Germany’s Siemens has secured a place for its Valero ICE trains in the Sunshine State.
While some confused people think we are headed to a post-partisan era, more reality-based analysts, like centrist political reporter Dana Milbank, know what nonsense that is.
The Republican party has been taken over intellectually by its most extreme elements, with the Big-Oil backed Tea Party acting as political enforcers to crush even ‘moderate’ conservatives who don’t fall in lock-stop with their anti-government, anti-science, pro-pollution agenda. Republican Senators most certainly got the message of what happened to GOPers like Mike Castle (‘moderate’), Lisa Murkowski (‘moderate’, Big Oil, pro-pollution conservative), and Bob Bennett (mainstream conservative global warming denier).
I have spelled this out in a series of columns (because it is the most consequential political reality for climate and clean energy policy for the foreseeable future), but it’s important to hear it from the bastion of centrist inside-the-beltway analysis. In his column, “The Republican Party could use some adults,” Milbank explains:
WASHINGTON“”Conceding almost certain Republican gains in next month’s crucial midterm elections, Democratic lawmakers vowed Tuesday not to give up without making one final push to ensure their party runs away from every major legislative victory of the past two years.
Party leaders told reporters that regardless of the ultimate outcome, they would do everything in their power from now until the polls closed to distance themselves from their hard-won passage of a historic health care overhaul, the toughest financial regulations since the 1930s, and a stimulus package most economists now credit with preventing a second Great Depression.
Laugh or cry–take your pick.
This piece by The Onion captures the disgust I hear from pretty much every progressive I know inside and outside the beltway. My only nit-pick is that the post spares Barack ‘no narrative’ Obama, who is the messager-in chief. Here’s more tragi-comedy:
California’s November election is a battleground for clean air and clean energy – and Latinos are on the front lines. CAP’s Jorge Madrid has the story.
This week a broad spectrum of Latino voices mobilized against Props 23 and 26. These two ballot initiatives, financed by Texas oil money, would threaten California’s landmark clean energy and climate laws – and make it easier for the worse polluters in the state to continue their dirty business.
The week kicked off with a joint press conference from the Green Jobs Bus Tour and Californians to Stop the Dirty Energy Proposition (watch the video here). Latino speakers ranged from a clean energy investment manager, medical experts, labor leaders, and the CEO of a green furniture company:
Edited by Joe Romm, we cover climate science, solutions and politics. Columnist Tom Friedman calls us "the indispensable blog" and Time magazine named us one of the 25 "Best Blogs of 2010." Newcomers, start here.
Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga.
Joe Romm has pulled together the secrets of the greatest communicators in history to show how you can apply these tools to your writing, speaking, blogging — even your Tweeting.
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