Pelosi v. Dingell: Energy Policy Smackdown

The Hill has the latest today on the, shall we say, “evolving tensions” between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell. The question is how the House leadership is going to structure the major energy bill they all want to get passed before Fall. Some, like Pelosi, want it to be unbearably horrible, while others, like Dingell, would prefer it to be somewhat less so. In any event, the most entertaining part of this spectacle is the obvious contempt with which Dingell continues to treat Her Speakership. Take Pelosi’s pet project, the Select Committee on Climate Change and Global Warming:

…in a C-SPAN “Newsmakers” interview taped last week and aired on Sunday, Dingell revived his stinging criticism of the House Select Committee on Climate Change and Global Warming and suggested that the American public was not ready to bear the cost of combating global warming.

“I have seen nothing that they have done that I, frankly, would want to take credit for,” Dingell said. “If I were on that committee, I would have long since asked for the privilege of being removed from it, because, quite frankly, I think it’s an embarrassment to everybody.”

Oh, snap. Of course, one can imagine why the gentleman from Michigan would be less than awed by the Speaker’s authority – she may be 67 years old, but Dingell has still been in Congress since Nancy Pelosi was in high school. All part of the “new leadership” in the House.