Inhofe wants to take Senate GOP obsturction to the next level

[Willinois]

Another good post by David Roberts at Grist...

James Inhofe’s worst idea ever?

Quote:Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), champion of climate denial in the world’s most dysfunctional legislative body, has a lot of terrible ideas. But this one may be the worst ever: He wants to require Senate confirmation for all of EPA’s 10 regional administrators.

You have to know a bit about contemporary U.S. politics to understand just how bad of an idea this is. One of the remarkable features of the last few decades has been the conservative movement’s abandonment of norms of conduct that used to enable the U.S. government to work, at least fitfully. For instance, there was never any legal impediment to the minority filibustering every single solitary bill the majority put forward. It just wasn’t done. It was understood that filibusters were to be reserved for matters of serious import. But conservatives have now abandoned that norm and the filibuster has become routine, a radical change in governance that the political media has barely seen fit to comment on.

Similarly, putting “holds” on, or otherwise refusing to confirm, executive-branch nominees used to be an extraordinary thing. Now conservatives do it routinely, to almost every nominee, prompting Brookings scholar Thomas Mann to refer to current GOP practice as “a modern-day form of nullification.”

This is another way to cripple EPA and make every appointment subject to special interest polluters.

Oddly, the comments are missing the usual chorus of third-party cynics telling us how both parties are the same and Obama is just as bad as Bush etc.

[PoliticalTiger]

James Inhofe's idea or big oil's idea? Probably "suggested" to Inhofe by big oil as they handing him another check!