The GOP's Plans

 * Rep. Joe Barton, the former oil executive, is salivating at the possibility of taking over the congressional committee on energy.  Politico has the lowdown on how Republicans are setting up plans with lobbyists in the event they take the majority:

Ranking member Joe Barton of Texas, potential 2011 GOP panel leader, Michigan's Fred Upton, and Reps. John Shimkus of Illinois, Mike Rogers of Michigan and Greg Walden of Oregon met Wednesday with 40 to 50 industry officials during an event at the National Republican Club. 

 

An industry source in the room said the meeting wasn't billed as a fundraiser. But the lawmakers' message tacitly linked donations to the committee agenda in 2011 if Republicans regain control of the House. 

“You should be giving us money because we're going to be in charge," the source said. "We'll ensure there is no climate bill. But at the same time, they think they'll build nuclear plants and more clean coal."

I know that things don't look good for Democrats right now, but I'd love to see the Dems retain control in both the House and the Senate.  I'd also like to see Joe Barton's plans go down the toilet.

________________

* Oh goody.  It appears that there is some disagreements, accusations, and yelling going on within the Republican Party.  CNN has the details.

________

*  As Rachel Maddow said tonight, Sen. Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, voted against saving the U.S. auto industry, but was at a celebration at the factory where he tried to bask in the revival of the car industry. 

Think Progress:


General Motors recently announced that, thanks to federal efforts to keep the American auto industry from going under, it would be able to rehire 483 workers at its Spring Hill, Tennessee plant to manufacture “three variants of Ecotec four-cylinder engines.” The $438 million arrangement will start producing engines for the Buick, Chevrolet, and GMC models by 2011.
As auto blog Jalopnik reports, the plant recently held a ceremony to welcome back the new workers to begin production of the Ecotec engines. Attending the ceremony were three local Republican legislators, Sens. Bob Corker, Lamar Alexander, and Rep. Marsha Blackburn. Ironically, all three of these lawmakers opposed the plans to save General Motors and other U.S. auto companies. This didn’t stop Corker from taking credit for the federal rescue, anyway. At the event he claimed he “contributed to strengthening the auto industry in this country.” Jalopnik reports that “irony of the Republican lawmakers’ presence wasn’t lost on the workers who attended the ceremony; they booed Tennessee Republican Bob Corker”:
...The irony of the Republican lawmakers’ presence wasn’t lost on the workers who attended the ceremony; they booed Tennessee Republican Bob Corker, and one UAW official made clear from the stage that the union still remembered which politicians had voted to rescue Wall Street but opposed an auto industry bailout...

Bob Corker is disgusting.