Kossacks (or some of them) have been getting their panties in a bunch over an interview Bingaman gave to the AP on the subject of tax breaks for oil companies.

Bingaman, incoming Energy Committee chairman, doubted whether it would be wise for the Senate to proceed in haste to legislate on withdrawing certain drilling incentives inserted into the megaporcine energy bill (HR 6).

These incentives are targeted (it seems) in the 100 Hours program:

We will energize America by achieving energy independence, and we will begin by rolling back the multi-billion dollar subsidies for Big Oil.

Bingaman wants to hold hearings and work for harmony with the GOP who might well be fired to obtructionism (or greater obstructionism!) by precipitate floor action.

There's more...

Politics is, in all times and all places, a game played by the rule of by any means necessary (as limited by a grudging acceptance of such pettifogging notions as constitutions, courts and other killjoy impediments).

In particular, a pol's folding, spindling and mutilating the truth is as basic to his trade as kneading is to a baker.

So no complaint on moral grounds at La Pelosi's handout on the oil companies' non-stop gusher, in which she says

The Republican Rubber Stamp Congress has passed two energy bills, costing taxpayers $12 billion for giveaways to big oil companies.

There's more...

Over the weekend, I've been mulling the roll call votes from the 109th House that Chris identified as the

twenty-eight votes on actual pieces of legislation where the majority position among Democrats in the House was different from the majority position among Republicans in the House.

(There's a slight hitch to be got over: there are 30 actual RCVs in the list (his #7 is not one, his #11 has four), of which all but one (his #8) involve a majority of Dems voting against, a majority of GOP for. It makes the spreadsheet a pain to leave #8 in, so I've ignored it - leaving 29 votes left to consider.)

Chris's idea in selecting these RCVs was, he said,

those twenty-eight votes provide the answer to the age-old question: how are Republicans different from Democrats?

Some of us doubted at the time whether the test chosen was capable of answering the question posed. But they're certainly important RCVs when considering the cohesion and coherence of the Dem party in the House.

There's more...