Lo! Republican Energy Conference Includes National Council for a New America

I had no idea I was stumbling into an event sponsored National Council for a New America event (see criticism yesterday) when I attended a meeting held by House Republicans on the cap-and-tax plan this morning.

Shortly after the opening of the energy meeting, one NCNA leader, Rep. Eric Cantor, took a seat next to Rep. Mike Pence and talked about how happy he was to be talking to the American people under the banner of NCNA, using lots of trite remarks like "we have to look forward," and "this is exactly what the American people are looking for."

In addition to that nausea-inducing rhetoric, I'm pretty sure the meeting just kind of slapped the NCNA label on their efforts last-minute. The real-time blog of the event at GOP.gov doesn't mention NCNA anywhere, and the initial press release didn't say anything about it, either.

But it's not that big a deal. The energy conference itself is high-quality: while this group of 20 Republican House Members are talking openly about energy solutions and the realistic impacts of environmental proposals, Democrats are trying to cut a deal for cap-and-trade behind closed doors. The Dems don't have to come out into the open — their numbers are great enough so they can pass legislation right through without considering or publicizing the negative aspects of their proposals. So it's left to the Republicans to highlight the real impacts of cap-and-tax.