Scramble for Votes

The Democrats are all scrambling for votes for the House bill tmo.  An excellent in depth article about all the elbow twisting going on in Congress right now to get to 218 votes for the climate bill tomorrow.  Considering doing a bit of your own elbow twisting, and call your Congressman in support.  I’m just going to highlight a few aspects that I think refute some sentiment that Obama wasn’t taking the climate bill seriously, I think he was just being strategic about it.  If Politico is  any indication him and his staff have been all over this, even if publicly the media focus has been health care(the trojan horse).  That’s even with the President’s statement today.  Here are some excerpts below.

“White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel worked the phones, and administration officials were expected to whip members at a White House luau Thursday night.”

“Behind the scenes, the administration worked furiously to help the Democratic leadership garner support for the legislation. Obama, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and other administration officials have been calling skeptical lawmakers from both parties for weeks. Energy adviser Carol Browner met with several on-the-fence lawmakers Thursday.  Emanuel met Wednesday with Kratovil and a group of other Democratic freshmen: Reps. Bobby Bright of Alabama, Jim Himes of Connecticut, Larry Kissell of North Carolina, Betsy Markey of Colorado and Mark Schauer of Michigan. Minnesota Democrat Tim Walz was invited for a Thursdaymeeting .”

“White House adviser David Axelrod explained the importance of the legislation in a morning meeting with the entire

DemocraticCaucus, telling the assembledlawmakers that the bill is a priority for the president. He also highlighted the legislation’s

importance to independent voters and said voters would reward Democrats at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue “for governing,”

according to one attendee.”