ThinkProgress Home
ThinkProgress
ThinkProgress Logo

Stories tagged with “David Vitter”

Green

Acting As Offshore Drilling Lobbyist, Vitter Kills NOAA Chief Scientist Nomination

By Brad Johnson on Jan 25, 2012 at 11:53 am

Dr. Scott Doney, who will not be NOAA's chief scientist

The White House announced Tuesday that Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) successfully killed the nomination of Dr. Scott Doney to be chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Over a year ago, Vitter issued a hold on the nomination of the widely esteemed senior scientist of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on behalf of the offshore drilling industry, E&E News reports:

Doney’s nomination, which enjoyed bipartisan support, was blocked beginning more than a year ago by Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), who demanded that Obama administration officials testify before Congress on the Interior Department’s decision to halt deepwater drilling in the wake of the BP PLC oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

A Vitter spokesman told E&E News that “Vitter had no specific objections to Doney but had significant concerns with the administration’s handling of Gulf drilling.”

The NOAA chief scientist position has been vacant for more than a decade, unfilled by either the George W. Bush or Barack Obama administrations.

Doney is a top expert on how the global carbon cycle and ocean ecology respond to natural and human-driven climate change, including ocean acidification from the burning of fossil fuels.

Last week, the White House announced the withdrawal of the nomination of Rebecca Wodder to be Interior’s assistant secretary for fish, wildlife, and parks, after failing to lift blocks from Vitter and Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK).

Related Posts

Green

GOP Extremists Block Interior Official Nomination

By Brad Johnson on Jan 23, 2012 at 3:14 pm

Rebecca Wodder

President Obama has withdrawn his nomination of Rebecca Wodder to be the assistant Interior secretary for fish, wildlife, and parks, after Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) and Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) blocked the pick. Wodder, the former CEO of American Rivers, was supported by environmentalists and even the Heartland Institute. Inhofe and Vitter blocked Wodder on behalf of the oil and gas industry. Inhofe explained he opposed Wodder over fracking, which she doesn’t even regulate:

They try to say it doesn’t directly affect the policy with hydraulic fracturing, and technically that’s right. But the fact that you come in as an activist with an extreme position is just more of the same in the administration, in every little corner of government.

Vitter had vowed he would block her confirmation unless Interior issued a blanket extension of all Gulf of Mexico drilling leases, Greenwire reports. The extension was not issued.

Wodder will work as an adviser at the department.

“Based on her extensive experience and expertise, the Secretary has asked her to serve as a senior adviser, working primarily on conservation issues and the America’s Great Outdoors initiative,” said Interior spokesman Adam Fetcher.

Economy

With 50 Million Americans In Poverty, David Vitter Proposes Gutting Food Stamp Program

By Travis Waldron on Nov 21, 2011 at 2:40 pm

A record number of Americans have fallen into poverty since the financial crisis sparked a deep recession in 2008, but that hasn’t stopped House and Senate Republicans from targeting the poor on their crusade to slash federal spending. In September, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (R) declared that “the poor are getting richer even faster” than the rich while relying on government programs, even as the number of children and senior citizens living in poverty has increased to record levels.

One of Paul’s fellow Republicans, Louisiana Sen. David Vitter (R), is now joining that fight, invoking the failed welfare reform policies of the 1990s in calling for a federal cap on food stamps and other forms of welfare, vital programs for millions of impoverished families that grew even more necessary during the recession. Under Vitter and three other senators’ plan, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports, food stamps would be capped at pre-2007 levels:

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., joined last week with three other conservative GOP senators to propose caps on means-tested federal social welfare programs. It would require that funding for food stamps and 76 other federal welfare programs be capped at pre-2007 levels by 2015 or when unemployment falls below 7.5 percent, whichever comes sooner. [...]

“One of the most significant substantive accomplishments coming out of the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress was welfare reform,” Vitter said. “But as significant as this reform was, we are overdue to renew welfare reform efforts and make additional gains because the welfare state has grown enormously since then — even factoring our recession.”

What Vitter doesn’t note, however, is that welfare reform was a massive failure, reducing America’s ability to aid its poorest and neediest citizens. In 1995, the old welfare system reached 75 percent of those living in poverty, but during the depths of the recession, the “reformed” welfare program reached less than a third. Food stamps, which were not included in those reforms, increased by 57 percent in 2009 as more Americans were plunged into poverty.

This isn’t the first time the GOP has targeted food stamps this year, nor are food stamps the only social welfare program to face the Republican axe. The House Republican budget cut funding for nutrition assistance programs and other programs that help women, infants, and children. The GOP has made extending unemployment benefits a chore, even as it endlessly protects massive tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy.

There are nearly 50 million people living in poverty, 15.7 million of whom are children, and without social welfare programs like food stamps, American poverty would be even worse. In 2010, 28.6 percent of Americans would have lived in poverty without social welfare programs, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Unfortunately, the Republican answer to that problem has been to propose raising taxes on the poorest Americans while simultaneously cutting the programs that are most vital to them.

Climate Progress

While Railing Against Solyndra, Republican House Members Host $11.8 Billion in Loan Guarantees in their Districts

By Stephen Lacey on Sep 20, 2011 at 3:54 pm

“Can’t escape from the common rule: If you hate something, don’t you do it too.”  — Pearl Jam

Playing up the Solyndra bankruptcy to the highest political degree possible, Republicans are using their best rhetorical tricks.  They have homed in on two phrases to describe loan guarantees — calling them a tool of “crony capitalism” and claiming that they allow the government “to pick winners and losers.”

Practically every conservative politician speaking to the press about Solyndra has used these phrases, often in the exact same sentence.

But a Climate Progress examination of public Department of Energy data finds over $11.8 billion in conditional commitments or closed loan guarantees for renewable energy and nuclear projects in Republican House districts around the country.

The data does not prove whether individual members of Congress lobbied for support of specific projects. However, recent stories from the Associated Press and the New York Times show that a number of high-profile political leaders have helped secure grants and loan guarantees through the stimulus package for projects in their districts. AP highlighted a few of the contradictions in a story yesterday:

Read more

Green

Before Bashing Renewable Energy Projects As ‘Reckless,’ Sen. Vitter Repeatedly Sought Loans For Them In His State

By Marie Diamond on Sep 19, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), best known for frequenting the prostitution services of the DC Madam, is joining the GOP’s Obama-bashing over Solyndra — the renewable energy company that received federal government loans before it went bankrupt. Vitter has even introduced a bill to increase scrutiny of taxpayer-financed renewable energy projects.

Vitter called the administration “reckless” for awarding billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies for renewable energy projects. That’s a particularly hypocritical charge coming from a man who has repeatedly asked for loans for those very same projects in his home state:

But Vitter was not always so critical of the loan program. Documents obtained by The Associated Press show he wrote to the Energy Department at least seven times since 2009 seeking money for projects that would benefit his home state.

One of the projects backed by Vitter, a company that makes activated carbon to reduce pollution at coal-fired power plants, has received preliminary approval for a $245 million loan guarantee.[...]

Vitter has also backed projects for nuclear power, renewable diesel fuel and a company that makes fuel-efficient cars.

Vitter’s bill would require that federal agencies conduct a full audit of any renewable energy projects that have received taxpayer money since 2009 — presumably including the projects he lobbied for.

“We can’t afford any more crony capitalism where the federal government picks winners and losers and then leaves taxpayers on the hook when everything falls apart,” Vitter said in a news release announcing the bill. The Time’s Swampland blog points out that the Senator doesn’t seem to be opposed to crony capitalism so much as he opposes the fact that his cronies haven’t benefited enough. So far, several of the projects Vitter has pushed have been turned down by the Department of Energy.

Vitter once also signed a letter complaining that the Energy Department was being too careful with loan guarantees for nuclear plants. The coal project he championed that received federal loans presumably isn’t crony capitalism because “clean coal isn’t renewable.” Vitter has also defended taxpayer funded subsidies for the five biggest oil companies and sought to protect Big Oil from liability for spills they caused.

So according to Vitter, Big Oil doesn’t need more oversight — just renewable energy firms. Republicans’ manufactured fury over Solyndra threatens to derail important clean energy investments around the country.

Yglesias

David Vitter Denounces ‘Crony Capitalism’ While Begging For Subsidies For His Favorite Firms

By Matthew Yglesias on Sep 19, 2011 at 9:55 am

The most remarkable thing about U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), if you ask me, is that he was able to publicly confess to committing a crime and just kind of skate on by without getting into any trouble. Indeed, as best I can tell, Vitter’s official position continues to be that people like David Vitter ought to be thrown in jail, unless they happen to be him, in which case they should be U.S. senators. So once you’re that far down the hypocrisy rabbit hole, this stuff is positively small time:

“We can’t afford any more crony capitalism,” Vitter said in Wednesday. Vitter should know. He’s written a bunch of letters to the Energy Department’s loan program seeking loans for renewable energy firms.

For example, on July 1, 2009, Vitter and Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana wrote Energy Secretary Steven Chu to support a loan application by the V Vehicle Company, a clean-car start-up (backed by T. Boone Pickens and the venture capital leviathan Kleiner Perkins) that was planning a Louisiana factory. “This vehicle would serve as a catalyst for job creation,” they wrote. A year later, Vitter joined the entire Louisiana delegation in another letter pushing “expedited consideration” for VVC. Alas, the Energy Department rejected the loan, citing concerns about the company’s financial viability. Vitter must have been annoyed by all this due diligence, because in December 2010–after VVC changed its name to Next Autoworks–he, Landrieu and Congressman Rodney Alexander tried once more. “Every day that Next Autoworks’ application is delayed is another day that workers cannot be hired,” the wrote. So far, no luck.

Needless to say this is over-and-above Vitter’s strident support of production subsidies for oil and gas companies. There’s no need to even ask whether or not Vitter thinks his favorite dirty energy firms ought to pay the freight for the negative externalities their activities have on the commons.

NEWS FLASH

Vitter Grudgingly Says He Will Miss A Football Game To Vote, Still Unclear If He Will Attend Obama’s Speech | Yesterday, Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) announced he would be skipping President Obama’s jobs speech tonight so that he can watch a football game. This morning, Vitter seemed to back away from his pigskin entertainment, posting on his Facebook wall that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) had scheduled votes this evening before and after Obama’s speech. “Typical Harry Reid,” Vitter wrote, “now I’ll miss my own Saints game party at home.” View a screenshot below (click to enlarge):

ThinkProgress contacted Vitter’s office to ask if the senator will be attending the speech, but has not received a response. A staffer answering the phone said he did not know.

By Lee Fang on Sep 8, 2011 at 12:45 pm

NEWS FLASH

Vitter Takes A Hostage For Big Oil | Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) said that he will “block the confirmation of Rebecca Wodder as the Interior Department’s assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks until the Obama administration extends hundreds of expiring Gulf of Mexico oil and gas leases for an additional year.”

Update

“Senator Vitter’s request is perplexing, and we expect that he will lift his hold since we took action on this a month and a half ago,” Interior spokesman Adam Fetcher said by email.

Politics

VIDEO: Santorum Struggles To Explain Why He Called For Clinton To Resign, Yet Gives Vitter A Free Pass

By Lee Fang on Jun 22, 2011 at 11:05 am

ThinkProgress filed this report from Creston, Iowa

In the wake of the Anthony Weiner scandal, many are wondering why Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), a member of Congress who was caught regularly using a prostitute service, has not faced public pressure to resign. On Monday at a campaign stop in Ames, Iowa, ThinkProgress asked Rick Santorum about the double-standard. He told us that he never calls on other members to resign and that he would only talk about his own conduct. However, in 1998, when he was still serving in the Senate, Santorum called on President Bill Clinton to resign if Republicans gained seats in the midterm because Clinton would undoubtedly face impeachment over the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

So on the following day, I asked Santorum what he would do if he had done what Vitter did. Santorum dodged the questions, before quickly jumping into a car and driving away:

FANG: We talked a little bit yesterday about congressional scandals. You said you would only talk about what you would do. If you did what Vitter did, would you resign?

SANTORUM: If I did what Vitter did, would I resign? Well I wouldn’t have done what David Vitter did.

FANG: That’s kind of a cop-out.

SANTORUM: No, that’s not a cop-out. No I didn’t.

FANG: You called on Clinton to resign for his sex scandal. In 1998, yes you did. You suggested that he should resign because of his sex scandal. Why the double standard for Vitter and not for Clinton?

SANTORUM: President of the United States, I said he should resign–

FANG: A senator can use a prostitute?

SANTORUM: I said he should resign because he lied about it to the American public–

FANG: Vitter didn’t lie? He didn’t lie to his wife, to his family, to the American people, to his office?

SANTORUM: Not in a court, in a deposition, which is what the President did and why I voted for his impeachment.

Watch it:

Santorum has tried to distinguish himself as the most pro-family values, most consistent conservative in the Republican primary for president. His dissembling to defend Vitter’s lying and prostitute use may be instructive.

Politics

Christian Conservative Group Demands Vitter’s Resignation, Says GOP ‘Committing Outright Hypocrisy’ By Letting Him Stay

By Alex Seitz-Wald on Jun 20, 2011 at 4:32 pm

The president of the Christian conservative Family Policy Network — a group best known for confronting attendees at gay pride events about Jesus’ power to cure homosexuality — sent a letter to Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) today calling on him to follow the lead of Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) and resign. Vitter admitted to frequenting prostitutes in 2007, but did not step down and, unlike Weiner, never faced much pressure from his own party to do so. Family Policy Network President Joe Glover added in his letter that Republicans “are committing outright hypocrisy” as long Vitter remains in office, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports:

“There are a lot of people that I think are committing outright hypocrisy and are forced to do so as long as he (Vitter) remains in office,” said Joe Glover, the president of the Family Policy Network, based in Forest, Va. “I don’t think the senator should put those folks in the untenable position of having to pragmatically defend his presence in the Senate.”

Glover noted, for example, that House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, had called on Weiner to resign, but had also contributed to Vitter’s 2010 re-election campaign.

An article that will be posted on the group’s website tomorrow asks, “So what did Republican leaders do about Senator Vitter? They let him off the hook.” The article continues, “[T]he public’s perception of Vitter as a sleazy, hypocritical Christian only served to tarnish the name of Christ among unbelievers.”

Indeed, while Weiner received universal condemnation from Democrats and Republicans alike, Vitter actually received a coordinated campaign of support from Louisiana Republicans and campaign donations from national Republican leaders — the same leaders who demanded Weiner’s resignation. Even former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele saw “inconsistency” in the way his party reacted to the two scandals.

To their credit, some conservatives have spoken out against Vitter. Fox News host Bill O’Reilly said, “I don’t think Vitter should be there. Absolutely not.” Fox’s Greta Van Susteren and right-wing media provocateur Andrew Breitbart — who played a key role in bringing down Weiner — have also criticized the senator.

Older

Switch to Mobile