Ever wonder what oversight Congress was doing before the big oil spill in the Gulf? I did. And asking around the Hill led me to one guy: West Virginia’s Nick Rahall, who for decades has been trying to overhaul or dismantle MMS. If only his leaders had listened to him… Here’s a look at his efforts.
deepwater horizon
Oil, Tar and Feathers
Washington has entered that wacky hyperbolic season again: OMG! The world is falling! The magic is gone! His credibility is shot! And, it turns out, President Obama’s not even competent!
Yes, the oil spill sucks. And yes, it’s a giant headache not only for Obama (gee, ya think that offshore drilling expansion was tragically …
Hurricanes
I spent Memorial Day weekend on the Gulf Coast. Not in NoLa with my colleagues staking out Thad Allen’s new solo briefings, but along Florida’s southern coast where my parents live. I was surprised to see the beaches more packed than I’d ever seen them. All the hotels in town were sold out, my parent’s told me, because of …
Muddying the Oil
British Petroleum is about to try and plug the leak with a never-tried-at-this-depth procedure called a “top kill” which essentially dumps upwards of 50,000 barrels of drilling mud on top of the leak followed by cement to plug it permanently. You can watch this process live over the next two days here. The risks are that it might …
Democrats Take a Page From the Frank Luntz Playbook
When Mitch McConnell unveiled his opposition to the Dodd financial reform bill last month, I highlighted the similarities between the minority leader’s floor speech and a memo from GOP message maven Frank Luntz. Their (mischaracterizing) argument was that the legislation would institutionalize Wall Street bailouts on the taxpayer’s …