29 Mar 2007 Thank God for Senator Inhofe II

From TheHill.com comes word that Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) is joining Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in blocking Al Gore’s request to hold a huge music concert on the Capitol grounds in July.

The concert, dubbed “Live Earth,” is designed to spread Gore’s political views on the global warming issue, and to pressure Congress to adopt legislation limiting energy use by Americans.

The Hill article, by Elana Schor, says, in part:

Inhofe vows to put brakes on Gore’s ‘Live Earth’ concert at the Capitol

Fresh from his face-to-face tussle with former Vice President Al Gore, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) is vowing to stall Gore’s hotly anticipated Capitol concert to draw attention to global warming.

Inhofe’s belief that climate change is “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people” is common knowledge in the capitol, and environmental groups cheered the new prospects for carbon-capping legislation when he ceded the Environment and Public Works Committee gavel this session. But Inhofe’s parliamentary powers can block indefinitely the resolution that would permit Gore to choose the capitol’s West Front for the U.S. leg of his seven-continent Live Earth concert tour — a collaboration between Gore and promoter Kevin Wall, who masterminded previous blockbuster charity concerts Live Aid and Live 8.

“There has never been a partisan political event at the Capitol, and this is a partisan political event,” Inhofe said yesterday.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) attempted late last week to pass the authorizing measure for Live Earth by unanimous consent. But Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) raised an objection on the floor, seeking more time for his side to look at the resolution.

Inhofe appeared to see little room for an accommodation that could allow the concert to go forward. “There’s no compromise. Either we change the rules or we don’t.”

Inhofe added that other members share his concerns, including unnamed Democrats as well as Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah), ranking member of the Rules Committee, which has jurisdiction over the concert resolution.

Democrats “may not be willing to stand up to Al Gore, but many of them found it just as objectionable as Republicans do,” he said…

Read the rest of the Hill article here.

Quoted in the Washington Post, Inhofe spokesman Marc Morano said, “Senator Inhofe objects to having any events on the Capitol grounds that are either highly partisan or politically controversial — and the proposed Gore concert is both.”

Quite right.

Global warming is a political issue. The proposed concert is a lobbying effort.

Let them lobby somewhere else.

The first post in this series is here. Our post commending Senator Mitch McConnell’s action on this issue is here.

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Labels: Climate, Congress, Environment, Liberals