Ted Stevens

Sen. Ted Stevens: Can this hurt ever heal?

I wrote a little while back on the tantrum thrown by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) when his fellow Senators refused to let him attach Arctic Refuge drilling to the defense appropriations bill.

Well, he's still whining:

As the Arctic drilling went down to defeat, Stevens said "goodbye" to the Senate, a remark interpreted by some as a farewell. At the press conference, Stevens said that interpretation was wrong.

"I'm here, I'm going to stay and get ANWR, there's no question about that. It's going to happen."

But Stevens said when he returns to Washington, he will no longer consider some Democrats his friends. The final refuge debate became too personal, he said.

"When I first went there, you would never hear a senator speak about another senator the way they were speaking about me that night," he said. "There are people I've considered to be personal friends without regards to politics, and they were turning into vipers as far as I was concerned. ... The extent of the venom there on the floor, that would never have happened in the days gone by."

Stevens said he has "written off" those friends.

"I'm not traveling with them anymore, and I'm not going to play tennis or swim or do various things with them."

Somebody give this guy a hug!

(via ThinkProgress)

Sen. Ted Stevens: Crybaby

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has spent the last week or so -- nay, the last 25 years -- attempting to circumvent the clearly and repeatedly expressed preferences of a majority of U.S. citizens by allowing oil drilling to take place in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The latest attempt involved attaching drilling to the defense appropriations bill, in effect holding military funding hostage in the middle of an armed conflict.

We have perhaps become numbed by the sheer repetition and persistence of these efforts, but it's worth pausing, stepping back, and noting just how utterly venal and anti-democratic they are. The country would not benefit from Refuge oil. It would be sold on the world market just like any other oil. Oil companies and the state of Alaska would benefit. For that, Stevens is willing to make a mockery of legislative procedure and tradition.

Stevens' latest defeat produced a self-pitying, thumb-sucking tantrum on the floor of the Senate. He said it was the "saddest day of his life." He also threatened his fellow Senators, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) in particular:

"I'm going to go to every one of your states, and I'm going to tell them what you've done," he told colleagues who voted against the measure. "You've taken away from homeland security the one source of revenue that was new ... I'm sure that the senator from Washington [Cantwell] will enjoy my visits to Washington."

He also, in effect, threatened to quit, saying "It's a day I don't want to remember. I say goodbye to the Senate tonight. Thank you very much." You can watch a little bit of the pathetic performance here (via Atrios).

(It's worth noting that when Refuge drilling came out of the defense bill, so did assistance for low-income people to heat their houses. The LIHEAP program will receive less funding this year than last year, despite record high heating prices. Maybe Stevens should shed a tear over that.)

Stevens and the defense bill

Update [2005-12-19 14:47:12 by David Roberts]: Oops, I forgot the obvious: To try to stop this thing, please write your Senators.

As forecast last week, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) managed to get Arctic Refuge drilling attached to the defense spending bill. He couldn't wrangle it into the budget reconciliation bill, so this is his last-ditch effort. He has said:

Katrina will be on this [defense] bill. That's what makes the defense bill a little bit attractive because Katrina will be there. It is going to be awful hard to vote against Katrina.

The levees will be paid for when we drill in ANWR.

The House passed the bill in a "bleary, pre-dawn vote" this morning (they must be so proud of themselves).

Now everything comes down to the vote in the Senate. Democrats have promised to filibuster the bill.

"I don't have any hesitation to be a part of a filibuster," said Democrat Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut. "This is a fight worth waging."

This is really end-game time, folks.

Below the fold, I've put some quotes from people reacting to Stevens' bid, culled from various sources (Wilderness Society, Sierra Club, news reports, etc.).

Arctic Refuge drilling to be attached to defense appropriations bill

Oh crap.

From Congressional Quarterly:

Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Ted Stevens said Thursday that House and Senate appropriators have agreed to attach drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to the Defense bill in conference, though it is unclear if he can muster the 60 votes needed to end a filbuster on the legislation that the move would provoke.

"We've agreed to put ANWR on it so we'll just have to wait and see what's going to happen," said Stevens, R-Alaska. "The leaders of the subcommittee on both sides have agreed. They will support it so I think it will pass."

...

Stevens, a staunch supporter of energy exploration in ANWR, had outlined a gambit Wednesday to link drilling in the region to hurricane relief aid that also will likely be attached to the Defense spending measure (HR 2863) in the hope that Gulf Coast lawmakers would vote with him. Tying the measure to support for the troops makes voting to sustain a filibuster doubly hard.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., made it clear to Senate leaders earlier this week that ANWR drilling cannot pass in the House on the budget savings package, and suggested using the Defense Appropriations conference report as the alternate vehicle, according to a Senate GOP aide.

...

Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who voted against the Senate budget savings package largely because of his opposition to ANWR drilling, said it would put him in a difficult position if ANWR were attached to the final Defense spending bill.

"I have a clear position on ANWR. I have a clear position on supporting our troops," Coleman said.

...

Some Democrats attacked Stevens' plan Thursday.

"Like Ahab, certain Republicans are so dedicated to a lost cause that they have lost their reason in the process," said Rep. Ed J. Markey, D-Mass., in a statement. Markey said adding ANWR to the Defense appropriations bill would slow down the approval of funding for the troops.

"Let us hope that those who captain the Senate will turn this ship around before it founders on a filibuster," Markey said.

Stevens

Yesterday I posted some of an article from Congressional Quarterly about the mad rush by some Congressfolk -- particularly Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) -- to get Arctic Refuge drilling passed this year. They sense that this is their last chance.

I really encourage you to go read it if you haven't already. It's quite eye-opening.

Stevens is aiming to put Gulf hurricane relief and refuge drilling together in the same bill (either the budget bill or the defense appropriations bill), so lawmakers have to vote for both or against both.

"It's going to be awfully hard to vote against [hurricane aid]," Stevens said. "If it's in there, maybe people will vote with me on ANWR."

Take a moment and really think that over.

Stevens is talking about holding aid to desperately needy people hostage in order to shove through a drilling provision contrary to the repeatedly expressed preferences of the majority of Americans.

By now this kind of stuff barely raises an eyebrow -- Stevens obviously feels no shame openly discussing it -- but that doesn't make it any less venal.

Stevens rumor

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) is not Jon Stewart's favorite person. Last week on The Daily Show's he did a memorable segment called "Who the F**k is Ted Stevens?" (Video here.)

Why is that? Well, consider the following.

He and his fellow drilling monomaniacs in Congress have inflated the (already-inflated [PDF]) projected revenue from Arctic Refuge drilling to $5 billion, though the Congressional Budget Office has not yet changed its official scoring.

Last week Stevens was openly discussing scaring up support for refuge drilling among Gulf-state Democrats by tying it to hurricane relief. Holding devastated families hostage. Classy.

But the latest rumor -- and right now it's only a rumor, mentioned in CongressDaily -- takes the cake. Apparently Stevens is considering holding up the Defense Appropriations Bill until he gets refuge drilling in the budget reconciliation bill, which is in conference committee. Holding the military's budget hostage. Quite a mensch!

Anyway, if anyone can verify (or disconfirm) this rumor, let me know.

An open letter to Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska

Dear Sen. Stevens, This week you got your wish: a 51 to 49 vote against the Cantwell amendment and in favor of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Caribou in the Arctic Refuge. Photo: Ken Whitten, Wilderness Society. The crude minds have spoken. Finally. You told your colleagues and anyone else who would listen […]

Because he said so

So, this month a panel of 300 scientists put out a report saying that global warming is most definitely underway, and that "human influences, resulting primarily from increased emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, have now become the dominant factor."

But stop the presses! U.S. Senator Ted Stevens (R-Ala.) says the scientists are wrong. Not that he's read the report.

Scientists who helped put together the report briefed members of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday.

Stevens, who is to chair the committee starting in January, agreed that climate change is a serious problem and said he looked forward to reading the report.

But he said he does not accept the conclusion the scientists reached: that the driving force behind warming is people burning coal, oil and natural gas, the fuels that produce greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere.

Stevens must have great confidence in his scientific credentials to cast doubt on the work of 300 climate specialists.  Curious about those credentials, I visited Stevens' bio page. Hm ... a mid-century law degree ... and then in congress since 1964.  Nope.  Nothing about science.

But he does acknowledge that "we need to take some action."  So what's the action?

Stevens' spokeswoman, Courtney Schikora Boone, said the action Stevens is taking is to fund more research about climate change.

UPDATE: Turns out it's not just Stevens; the entire Alaska delegation is demonstrating a heretofore undetected bent for science.

"My biggest concern is that people are going to use this so-called study to try to influence the way and standard of living that occurs within the United States," Young said.

"I don't believe it is our fault. That's an opinion," Young said. "It's as sound as any scientist's."

Young's opinion, you see, is just as valid as any scientist's, regardless of any "so-called study." The mind just boggles, doesn't it?

Fishy Business

For the second time this year, congressional Republicans have used behind-the-scenes trickery to weaken organic-labeling standards. Powerful Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, tacked a measure onto the recently passed $79 million war-spending bill that directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture to come up with a plan for certifying and labeling […]