Carper Changes His Reason For Voting in Favor of Keystone in the 11th Hour
Because his prior pretext was patently ludicrous and every bit of it was a cynical lie, Carper has updated his reason for voting in favor of the environment catastrophe known as the Keystone pipeline.
Now he says he is voting for this flaming peice of toxic shit because Mary Landreiu begged him to.
“Senator Landrieu has been cajoling, pleading with her colleagues—mostly Democrats—to provide an up or down vote on this,” Carper said in a recent interview with Bloomberg Politics. “I think the time has come.” (3 hrs ago via Bloomberg)
That”s some fucking bullshit. While It is a given that he doesn”t give a flying fuck about his constituents, that he so openly and brazenly putting the concerns of (soon to be Ex-)Senator Mary Landreiu”s above his constituent”s is surprising.
Even as late a yesterday, Carper was still trying to slide by with his the cynical lie about this vote being the key to bring the GOP to their bipartisan sense, and usher in a era of bipartisan peace and prosperity.
He even doubled down on the cynicism and lying:
“It has impeded our ability to work together and make progress even casino online on issues that we’re in agreement on,” he said Monday. “We need to address this issue and we need to move on. My hope is that my willingness to show some flexibility at this point in time will be reciprocated by the Republicans in a new majority when the time comes to address clean-air issues, clean-energy issues, energy conservation issues in a new Congress – because I sure expect them to reciprocate.”
..Because I sure expect Republican to reciprocate?!?!? No fucking way you cynical liar. I can only hope that when Carper insisted that that was his REAL reason for this vote, the NJ”s Nicole Gaudiano just kept asking, “Really..? Really?, No, really?”
Carper is Delaware’s worst elected public official of my lifetime, and his litany of outrages just gets longer. He tried to give us health care spending vouchers, he started the disastrous War On Public Schools as governor, he cast perhaps the deciding vote enabling Alito and Roberts to get up-or-down votes in the Senate, he helped scuttle a $10.10 minimum wage b/c he just thought it was too much, he helped make declaring bankruptcy tougher for people while making regulation almost disappear for the financial institutions foreclosing on the bankrupt, he voted for every war resolution that came before him, and he now will vote for the Keystone Pipeline. Plus, is there now any doubt that this bastard will ‘reach across the aisle’ to try to emasculate Social Security now that the Rethugs control both branches of Congress? I think not.
I can’t find the words to adequately describe my hatred for this man.
He is shockingly awful.
Wouldn’t it be refreshing if Carper would listen to his constituents pleading and cajoling him to hold a vote?
Indeed. The pleading and cajoling of non-Senators or non-lobbyists means nothing to him.
Glad I voted Green.
So, filibusters are bad when Republicans do them, but good when done by the Democrats, right? 🙂
Let’s assume that the Senate does vote on the Keystone XL pipeline, and it passes. It will then go to President Obama, who has had his aides strongly hint that he’d veto it.
But, let’s further assume that the President either signs it, or allows it to become law without his signature. If that happens, you can count on the green groups to use lawfare, to tie it up in the courts for a couple of years. That’s still more delay.
From The Wall Street Journal:
More at the link, but another Journal article noted the expanded use of railroads to ship oil. My best guess is that Keystone won’t be built, because the oil industry has pretty much factored in the delays as death, but the Canadian tar sands oil will be used anyway, simply transported by other means.
Of course, transport by rail means transporting the oil by a system which is more likely to have an accident than anew pipeline, meaning an increased probability of serious oil spills and an increased probability of injury or death to bystanders.
My guess is that you’ll win, through the attrition of time, on the Keystone pipeline itself, but you won’t have actually gained anything by the victory.
What’s wrong, Dana, is that Rethugs have filibustered EVERYthing under this president, and that D’s like Carper have caved in the rare instances when a filibuster is the only tool available to them to oppose bad proposals from R presidents, all in the expressed ‘spirit of bipartisanship’.
Dubya got almost everything he wanted from Congress, Obama got almost nothing, and it’s been by Rethug design.
The only so-called ‘bipartisans’ in Congress are the Stockholm Syndrome D’s.
Mr Somnambulo, the Republicans haven’t had to filibuster much since January of 2011, other than judicial nominations, something I assume you approve of, given your first comment on this thread. Harry Reid took away that weapon concerning nominations, something the Democrats saw as horrible when the “nuclear option” was proposed while George Bush was President.
Given that the President is almost certainly going to veto this legislation even if it passes, I’m not sure why the Democrats are expending the energy to block the vote. Senator Landrieu gets her vote, which may or — more probably — may not help her in the run-off election, and the law still doesn’t pass. The Democrats who think that they need to vote for the pipeline get their vote, and the President who can’t run for re-election again takes whatever political heat there is for the veto.
The vote is done. Keystone XL fails to pass. DESPITE Carper’s yes vote. Good job dude. As far as I can tell, you are the only Democrat from a solidly blue state to vote yes. And for what? The bill still failed, and your anti-fan club is riled up. Casey (D-Pa) also voted yes, but PA is now a quasi-oil state, so I can _almost_ understand. The Dem from S. Dakota voted no! Y
You sir, are a disgrace. I’m thinking about registering as an “I” so I can run against you in the general.
EvolvDE wrote:
If you believe that Senator Carper is so terrible, and needs to be challenged from the left, wouldn’t the Democratic primary be the better place to do that? It was though the primaries that the TEA Party challenged moderate Republicans, and even knocked off a few.
Of course, y’all could do both, challenge him in the primary, and again in the general election as an independent.
Carper has now shifted back to saying that his vote was a vote designed to usher in a new golden age of bipartisan cooperTion on climate change. I feel sorry for anybody who buys that bullshit.