Reply #14: Republicans are going to do well, but I don't think they will take either Chamber

[TayTay]

But that is beside the point. (I still don't think the pundits know any more than anyone else. They are just noiser about it.)

The bird's eye view of this is that Climate Change legislation would probably have been blocked in the Senate. (Nelson of Nebraska voted against Financial Reform. If he can't vote against Wall Street, there is no way in hell he is going to vote for the climate change bill.) That does not mean that climate change action is dead. I don't think it is. The federal action was weak to begin with, despite the best efforts of people like John Kerry.

Yes, the country needs action on climate change. No, it is not going to get it from the Congress. It can't. The Congress is pre-programmed to not pass it because the very nature of the action violates the way the Congress runs. It doubly is not going to pass in this economic climate. (I think the timing of this is off. The time was last year, but Baucus and his inept mishandling of the health care bill doomed that.)

The people are way, way ahead of the Congress on this. The developments on climate change are out in the states and with people. The climate action bill was not going to affect that much, it's chief virtue was taking any action at all, which, again, was always a long shot.

We haven't lost anything. We just haven't gained anything in Congress yet either. But, the pressure for this is not going to come from Congress, which is institionally unable to do anything anyway. (Congress is broken, this is but a symptom of that breakage.)