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The Henry Waxman wane
Investor's Business Daily
What could hurt a hurting economy more than an environmental extremist as chairman of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee? Meet Rep. Henry Waxman of Beverly Hills. It was a slim margin of 137-122 on Thursday when Democrats voted to buck seniority for next year's session and strip the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives, Michigan's John Dingell, of the chairmanship of the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Long known as "The Truck," the much-feared auto industry partisan chaired that powerful panel during the entire Reagan administration, George H.W. Bush administration, the first two years of Bill Clinton, and for the last two years — nearly three decades as the committee's top Democrat. But with the Big Three automakers now reduced to panhandling on Capitol Hill, it seems apt that their biggest shill in Congress, whom the union-whipped industry has long showered with campaign cash, has been ditched.
Dingell is liberal, but he at least fought against excessive emission standards and other Greenpeace wish list items — simply to protect domestic carmakers. Replacing him is a notorious ideological witch hunter who will bully businesses that resist radical environmentalist groups' demands. The naming of Henry Waxman left green groups beside themselves with joy. "Ding-dong the Dingell is gone," cheered the climate blog for the Center for American Progress, the think tank of Obama transition chief and former Clinton White House chief of staff John Podesta.
Waxman's election "shows that a majority of the House Democrats are ready to work with the incoming Obama Administration on effective global warming legislation," according to Clean Air Watch — an organization that seems to want NASCAR racing banned because its exhaust fumes are "putting millions of spectators and nearby residents at unnecessary risk of suffering serious health effects."
As Competitive Enterprise Institute senior fellow Chris Horner quipped, "Funny how Dems elected a guy to chair Energy and Commerce who opposes both." As chairman of the House Government Reform Committee for the last two years, and before then when Democrats were in the minority, Waxman has instigated a reign of terror costing American business hundreds of billions of dollars.
As chairman of the energy panel's health and environment subcommittee during the Clinton years, Waxman dragged tobacco executives before him and held inquisitions that paved the way for the tobacco settlement costing over $200 billion, the largest civil award in history.
His witch hunts have included hounding former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld over Halliburton's activities in Iraq and making his committee a public forum for Valerie Plame to discuss her "outing" as a CIA operative (one of the worst kept secrets in Washington).
And on prescription drugs, food, toys and Medicare expansion, he has similarly been a bane to business and a enabler for new intrusive government regulations.
He is also a bully, as can be seen in a popular YouTube video of an altercation with Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., in May. During questioning of Environmental Protection Agency administrator Stephen Johnson over ozone standards, Waxman's reaction to an inquiry over House rules from ranking subcommittee Republican Issa was to slam his gavel wildly a half-dozen times and threaten Issa that "I will have you physically removed from this meeting if you don't stop."
Waxman's agenda for the future includes the "Safe Climate Act," promising that "by 2050, emissions will be 80% lower than in 1990" — a verbatim echo of Barack Obama's "New Energy for America" proposal.
And it's worth remembering that Waxman's well-do-do, little-to-lose constituents see green activism the way other congressmen's voters view pork. He is the House's Hollywood liberal, representing Malibu and Santa Monica, as well as Beverly Hills.
What's more, the naming of veteran Waxman aide Phil Schiliro as the Obama White House's congressional liaison is a pretty good indication of the friendliness Waxman will find for his objectives at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
It all spells a perfect storm of environmental extremist control of government. Business — and their employees, who may be victims of layoffs — better batten down the hatches.
BrookesNews.Com
Monday 24 November 2008