DEMS PULLING BACK – AT 11:46 A.M. ET.  FROM THE POLITICO:  THE ENDANGERED DEMOCRATS OF THE SENATE ARE SENDING AN SOS TO THE WHITE HOUSE – "DON'T CAP, DON'T TRADE, JUST SAVE US." 

Bruised by the health care debate and worried about what 2010 will bring, moderate Senate Democrats are urging the White House to give up now on any effort to pass a cap-and-trade bill next year.

“I am communicating that in every way I know how,” says Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), one of at least half a dozen Democrats who've told the White House or their own leaders that it's time to jettison the centerpiece of their party's plan to curb global warming.

The creation of an economy-wide market for greenhouse gas emissions is as the heart of the climate bill that cleared the House earlier this year. But with the health care fight still raging and the economy still hurting, moderate Democrats have little appetite for another sweeping initiative — especially another one likely to pass with little or no Republican support.

“We need to deal with the phenomena of global warming, but I think it’s very difficult in the kind of economic circumstances we have right now,” said Indiana Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh, who called passage of any economy-wide cap and trade “unlikely.”

COMMENT:  I wish they'd gotten this idea before passing that health "reform" monstrosity.  And I hope they notice that the "science" behind global warming is falling apart day by day, in part because it isn't real science. 

If we have any luck in November – the midterm elections are little more than 10 months away – we can reverse the impact of 2008 and get the country back to at least borderline sanity.

December 27, 2009