Is Lieberman at it again?
by Lisa Lerer
Sen. Joe Lieberman alienated a lot of Democrats last year when he campaigned for John McCain and dismissed Barack Obama as a “talker” rather than a leader.
He may be on the verge of doing it again.
In an effort to resuscitate some version of the House climate change bill in the Senate, the Connecticut independent is trying to get Republicans and moderate Democrats on board by adding money for coal power and nuclear plants — changes that would infuriate many of the bill’s liberal supporters.
“I don’t think we’re going to [pass a bill] without bipartisan support,” Lieberman told POLITICO last week. “And without a nuclear title that’s stronger than in the House climate change legislation, we’re not going to be able to get enough votes to pass climate change.”
Lieberman’s staff has been meeting quietly with staffers for well over than a dozen senators on both sides of the aisle to draft provisions that would increase funding for coal and nuclear power plants.
Republican participants in the bipartisan group include aides to Lieberman’s 2008 traveling companions, McCain and Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, as well as those of Sens. George Voinovich of Ohio, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Richard Burr of North Carolina — all of whom have harshly criticized the climate bill that passed the House in late June.
Lieberman believes that including greater funding for coal and nuclear energy could make the bill more attractive to Republicans and conservative Democrats. The Republicans in his group agree — but some say that increasing support for nuclear power is unlikely to be enough to win their votes.
“There are a lot of things that keep you from having a bipartisan bill,” said Burr. “The bill is flawed, and the way, at least, it will be implemented picks winners and losers state to state.”
But Lieberman risks losing the support of some more liberal Democrats’ if he proposes wholesale changes in the bill.
Coal and nuclear plants are reviled by many environmentalists, who see them as dangerous and dirty sources of power.
“There is potentially a limited role for nuclear but nothing like the Republicans want to do,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio).
Lieberman’s efforts mark the fifth time he’s tried to get a climate bill through Congress. But this time, he has to call the plays from the sidelines.
Last year, the Democratic Party stripped the Democrat- turned-independent of his seat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, where he chaired a global warming subcommittee, as punishment for his role in the 2008 GOP presidential campaign.
That hasn’t stopped him from opening up his old playbook.
In 2005, Lieberman tried to attract support for a climate bill he sponsored with McCain by including provisions that would have helped the nuclear power industry. The bill failed 38-60, after California Sen. Barbara Boxer and several other Senate Democrats voted against it.
Despite that loss, Lieberman still believes nuclear power could break a climate deadlock.
“On some issues — nuclear is one; coal, even more — the differences are not that partisan. They are more geographic,” he said.
Boxer, chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, is expected to introduce a global warming bill by the end of the month. For months, she has resisted proposals that would encourage nuclear power. But more recently, she has said that her bill will include a nuclear title, although Democratic aides said they expect it to offer little more than worker training programs.
Nevertheless, Boxer’s move is an indication of the type of compromise Democrats will have to make to get a climate bill through the Senate. The Democratic Caucus is spilt over the climate bill, with Rust Belt senators fearing that the legislation could hurt industry and consumers in their region. The divide among Democrats means supporters will most likely need Republican votes to overcome a Senate filibuster.
Democrats are hoping to persuade a few moderate Republicans, such as Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, to vote for the legislation.
“In terms of getting it across the finish line, having some Republicans on the bill would make it easier to pass,” said Joshua Freed, a policy analyst with the centrist group Third Way. “And having a couple more than Snowe would make the whole process much easier.”
But the vast majority of Senate Republicans oppose the legislation, with their most vehement criticisms reserved for the cap-and-trade system included in the House bill. Democrats consider cap and trade to be the centerpiece of the legislation because it would put a firm limit on greenhouse gas emissions.
