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The Climate Desk on Lindsey Graham

Across the web, Climate Desk contributors have been tracking and reacting to this weekend's climate bill saga.

Kate Sheppard at Mother Jones is waiting to see what comes out of John Kerry and Joe Lieberman's last-ditch meeting with Lindsey Graham this afternoon. She talked to a Sierra Club representative, who was befuddled, and an energy lobbyist, who claimed the recent divisions prove existing flaws in the bill: "'If the immigration fight lit the match, there was already some smoldering in advance of today's planned event,'" the lobbyist told Sheppard.

Also at Mother Jones, Kevin Drum is tempted to call Graham a hypocrite for knocking immigration reform after urging its passage. But despite the favor Graham's defection will curry with Republican voters, Drum agrees with him that Harry Reid's actions are politically motivated:

Let's be honest here: this really does seem more like a political exercise to firm up the Hispanic vote than a serious effort to deliver a major immigration bill this year, doesn't it? It's possible that Graham's defection from the climate bill is cynically motivated too, but that only means that both sides are playing politics.

Over at Grist, David Roberts calls Reid's scheduling shake-up a "test of leadership" for Obama:

I can't believe Obama (or White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel) will stand by and let Reid do it. The administration has reaffirmed multiple times in past weeks that they want a comprehensive climate/energy bill this year. Obama himself called it a "foundational priority." Is he willing to let it get lost in the shuffle in a futile bid to save Reid's ass? If he does he'll either look powerless over his own party or insincere about his own professed values and priorities.

 

Elsewhere on the web

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