Senate staffers of both parties say Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, the Environment Committee chairman, did a poor job managing the failed global warming bill. They want somebody else handling the issue in the next Congress.
Boxer was criticized for pressuring Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to bring up a bill to raise energy taxes when gasoline was $4 a gallon. She was given low grades for her management of the bill, including the late substitution of a new 490-page measure. Needing 60 votes to end debate, Boxer got only 48.
Critical staffers would like to see global warming handled next year by Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Energy Committee chairman, or Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, Finance Committee chairman.
HANDS-OFF PLATFORM
Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, the 2008 Republican platform chairman, will make his first serious contact with high levels of Sen. John McCain's campaign this week, when he meets with campaign manager Rick Davis. That marks a sharp contrast from micromanaging of the 2000 and 2004 platforms by George W. Bush's operatives.
During the past two conventions, the Bush's team virtually dictated the platform (with heavy use of the president's name). The McCain strategists are giving a free hand to McCarthy, a freshman conservative and former floor leader of the California Assembly. McCarthy's co-chairman is first-term Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, also a conservative.
A footnote: McCarthy has hired as an editor former Reagan White House aide William Gribbin, whose platform experience dating back three decades provides institutional memory for the rookie co-chairmen.