The Lady Has the Gavel Now

One of the better outcomes of the new Democratic majority in the Senate was the fact that Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) (a man about whom it is impossible to say too many bad things) lost the gavel of the US Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works to Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA). Inhofe is of course the man who famously declared global warming to be the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people." Having Inhofe as the majority chair of a committee whose charge is responsibility for dealing with matters related to the environment and infrastructure" was like having wolves guarding a penful of lambs. But the wheel turned, bringing Senator Boxer in as Majority Chair, dropping Inhofe to ranking minority member. Just to peruse the front page of the Committee website is to see the different approach these two senators bring to their charge. Boxer's new welcome message on the page is:

The air we breathe, the water we drink, and the products we consume have a direct impact on the health of our families. The work of this Committee helps define the kind of world we leave our children and grandchildren.

In addition to ensuring our families have safe and healthy communities to live in, the Environment and Public Works Committee’s jurisdiction includes responsibility for addressing global warming, one of the greatest environmental challenges facing our nation today.

The Committee also has responsibility for legislation related to America’s critical transportation systems, flood protection, drinking water and wastewater systems, and the other public infrastructure that provides the foundation for our quality of life and keeps our nation’s economy moving.

Boxer's page includes a section called Act Now to Stop Global Warming, a succinct listing of the top ten concrete actions individuals and families can do to ameliorate what Gore yesterday called our coming planetary crisis.

On Senator Inhofe's side of the page you can read fun stuff from FOX News mocking Al Gore, check out the blog (where you can download Inhofe's "A Skeptic’s Guide to Debunking Global Warming Alarmism" , and generally send your blood pressure straight through the skylights on your roof.

As everyone who hasn't been recently immersed in a sensory deprivation tank must know, former VP Al Gore addressed both Houses of Congress yesterday, appearing before two committees, one in the House, and in the Senate before the very committee I've been discussing here. If there is any lingering doubt in anyone's mind who is now in charge of the EPW Committee, I beg you to watch this delicious moment during the proceedings, a moment of complete and total smackdown of Inhofe by Boxer. The lady knows how to wield her gavel in the most genteel but definitive fashion. She must have wanted to do this for some long time coming. I enjoyed this in the most visceral fashion, hope y'all do too.

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