Lieberman key player on global warming

Tom Curry National affairs writer • Profile • E-mail

WASHINGTON - Sen. Joe Lieberman is at center stage in the Senate this week.

He is leading the charge for a landmark greenhouse gas bill which would force power plants, steel mills and other industrial operations to cut carbon dioxide emissions.

But at the same time he's front and center shepherding the bill, Lieberman is in a political no-man’s land, neither entirely out of the Democratic Party, nor exactly in it either.

The Democratic vice presidential candidate in 2000, Lieberman is the most prominent Democratic supporter of Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain.

Some Democrats insist that Lieberman is not a Democrat at all, but there he was Tuesday at the weekly policy luncheon at the Capitol where Democratic senators plan their strategy.

And there he was 24 hours earlier sitting in the front row at the annual meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) when McCain addressed the group and bashed Sen. Barack Obama’s stance on Iran.

He followed up on Wednesday by taking part in a McCain campaign conference call with reporters criticizing Obama’s speech to the AIPAC conference.

Last month he said, “I worry that Sen. Obama has not had that experience (as McCain has) and therefore, ultimately, will compromise our security… and also our alliances.”

And

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he derided Obama’s statement last year that he would meet without preconditions with Iranian President Ahmadinejad.

“That not only gives prestige to a terrible America- and Israel-hater, but it also threatens our allies in the region,” said Lieberman.

A Democratic outcast, a renegade, a maverick — call him what you will, Lieberman is positioned to both help elect the next president and enact a bill that would transform the American economy.

Campaign doesn't deter cooperation
Both Lieberman and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, insisted Tuesday that there’s no awkwardness over Lieberman’s outspoken support for McCain and his criticism of Obama.

It has not impaired Lieberman’s ability to help lead the Democrats’ greenhouse gas crusade, they said.

The Boxer-Lieberman-Warner bill Why should you care?  For one thing, the bill could have sparked growth of industries that would compete with oil and gasoline.  Click here to find out more.

The Senate is spending this week debating the Boxer-Lieberman-Warner bill (Sen. John Warner, R-Va. is the third co-sponsor), which at its core would create a complex system of trading carbon dioxide "allowances" between businesses.

“We just don’t come close to agreeing on that (the presidential race) or on the war, but on this we agree and we’re working very closely on it,” Boxer said Tuesday.

Asked whether the campaign elbowing makes it difficult for him to work with Democrats on the greenhouse gas bill, Lieberman said, “I don’t think so, I haven’t felt it.”

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Boxer lavished praise on Lieberman as the debate began Monday, saying his role as a bill co-author and sponsor makes it a “tri-partisan” crusade.

She brought up Lieberman’s 2000 running mate, Al Gore, noting that the former vice president and Nobel Prize co-winner this year has just given his blessing to the Boxer-Lieberman-Warner bill.

But as of Tuesday night, none of the presidential contenders had showed up to take part in the Senate debate on a bill that, in some form, is likely to be sigend into law by the next president, no matter who that is.

The White House issued a statement this week saying that President Bush would veto the bill in its current form. That makes what was happening in the Senate mostly a dress rehearsal for next year's action.

Bashing Iran, praising McCain
Lieberman put his own gloss on the bill at one of the kick-off events Monday in a park across the street from the Capitol.

He reminded the crowd of green activists that the previous version of the bill was “the McCain-Lieberman bill.”

And he got in a shot at one his favorite targets, the regime in Iran. His bill would ultimately reduce reliance on imported oil and when that happened, he said, Americans “don’t have to worry about importing from the tyrants in Iran or Venezuela, or even Mr. Putin in Russia.”

Lieberman always takes the opportunity to tout McCain’s support for limiting greenhouse gas emissions.

“He was one of the first people to want to do something about global warming,” Lieberman told reporters Tuesday. “I know he wants to make sure we are more supportive than the bill now is on nuclear energy. But I have no doubt he’ll be supporting this bill.”

So why hasn't McCain yet declared his support for the bill?

“He’s not ready to say he’s going to support it until he sees more nuclear. But this is essentially the bill he and I introduced five years ago,” Lieberman explained.

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