Vitter “Resorting to Delusion”
The Lafayette Daily Advertiser panned David Vitter for “resorting to delusion” over a climate change bill:
The Bad: Cap-and-Trade Melodrama
Birthers, deathers, tea-partiers and conspiracy theorists of all stripes have thrown every sort of accusation, from the merely inaccurate to the truly bizarre, at Obama administration policies. So maybe it’s just a habit at this point. But we can’t imagine why U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-Metairie, felt compelled to go all Limbaugh over legislation that has plenty of downside for Louisiana even without resorting to delusion. According to The Hill’s Briefing Room blog, Vitter called a Nov. 10 press conference to decry provisions in the House and Senate versions of the cap-and-trade law that, the senator said, would allow President Barack Obama to assume dictatorial powers by declaring a “climate emergency.” A conservative blogger, Ed Morrissey, blew the whistle. Morrissey said cap-and-trade is a bad bill for many reasons, but that he couldn’t find anything like the “climate emergency” provisions to which Vitter referred. Cap-and-trade legislation would impose limits on carbon emissions and allow polluters to sell any unused room under their individual carbon caps. While doubtless good for climate change, it’s bad for those employed in petrochemical plants to our east and west. Vitter could have made a solid argument against cap and trade without ever leaving the planet. [Lafayette Daily Advertiser, 11/19/2009]
