In 2006, the Democratic mantra was “change the committee chairs”. Democratic activists gasped to each other, “Can you imagine what it will mean to have a Democrat as chair on every committee?”
Now, in 2007, we can see that Democratic chairs of congressional committees sometimes doesn’t mean very much at all. Take, for example, the chairmanship of John Dingell over the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Representative Dingell is a Democrat, but he’s a Democrat from Michigan, and views it as part of his job to represent the interests of Michigan’s car manufacturing companies.
The car manufacturing companies of Michigan are against efforts to strengthen the fuel mileage standards for cars, and so Representative Dingell is eager to help the Republicans delay any congressional action on the matter. Six months into the new Democratic Congress, John Dingell’s House Committee on Energy and Commerce still had not taken any action on increasing the fuel efficiency of cars. What’s more, Dingell announced that the committee would not even begin to consider such matters until the autumn.
Thanks to John Dingell, we’re seeing the same delay and denial of action on fuel efficiency that we saw when Republicans controlled all the congressional committees. Dingell’s dodge is a great reminder that, when it comes to promoting fuel efficiency and protecting the environment, it’s not enough just to vote for a Democrat and assume that everything will turn out all right. You have to be sure to vote for a genuine progressive.
(Source: The Guardian, June 22, 2007)
