Agenda Under Siege

Even More Cracks
The Obama Administration has been moving full-speed ahead on anticarbon regulation, never mind waiting for Congress to pass a bill. But now opposition is building among senior Democrats, with two powerful committee Chairmen introducing a bill last week to bar the Environmental Protection Agency from declaring that carbon is a dangerous pollutant. (WSJ, 2/8/2010)

President Obama may soon find that he has bigger problems then Republican “obstructionism.” His own party may be turning against his agenda.

Could it be true?
When Republicans take President Obama up on his invitation to hash out their differences over health care this month, they will carry with them a fairly well-developed set of ideas intended to make health insurance more widely available and affordable, by emphasizing tax incentives and state innovations, with no new federal mandates and only a modest expansion of the federal safety net. (NYT, 2/8/2010)

So, notwithstanding President Obama's characterizations, it turns out that the Republicans do have a plan after all....and a "fairly well-developed" one at that!

Unsettling
Just over two years ago, Rajendra K. Pachauri seemed destined for a scientist’s version of sainthood: A vegetarian economist-engineer who leads the United Nations’ climate change panel, he accepted the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the panel, sharing the honor with former Vice President Al Gore.

But Dr. Pachauri and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are now under intense scrutiny, facing accusations of scientific sloppiness and potential financial conflicts of interest from climate skeptics, right-leaning politicians and even some mainstream scientists. (NYT, 2/8/2010)

But wait, we thought that the issue of climate change was “settled science!”