Senators (Kerry) call on Rice to address 'oil addiction'

[Mass]

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Senators_call_on_Rice_to_address_0213.html

Senators call on Rice to address 'oil addiction'

RAW STORY
Published: February 13, 2006



A letter penned by John Kerry (D-MA) calling on Secretary of State Rice to prove the President is serious about reducing national dependence on foreign oil has been signed by four other prominent U.S. Senators.

Rice testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee tomorrow.

A copy of the letter, advanced to RAW STORY, follows:

[MH1]

1. Very nice, but

only FOUR other signers???

Sigh. Maybe they were all snowed in.

[blm]

2. possibly, but even the DSM letter only got 9 other signers.

signers in the senate must be harder than it sounds.

[karynnj]

3. I know Cantwell has been an energy point person

and I think some of the others are too. So, maybe he hopes to get more. (He has to be able to get Kennedy - so he may be adding more.)

Senator Jeff Bingaman, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Senator Jack Reed, Senator Maria Cantwell.

[TayTay]

4. And two of those Senators voted for cloture.

Hmmm, so much for the idea that other Dem Sens are still mad at Kerry for the filibuster. Sens. Bingaman and Cantwell did vote against Judge Alito for the Supreme Court, but they did not heed Sen. Kerry's call to filibuster the nomination. Guess all is forgiven. (Either that or these folks are grown-ups who recognize that it's time to move on to the next battle.)

I love this as a setup to the hearing tomorrow. Bush called for America to pursue energy independence in the SOTU speech, only to have his minions and overlords recall the statement the next day and say that Bush didn't really mean it. I guess we can expect some fireworks tomorrow in the hearing, provided Sen. Kerry gets more than 5 minutes to question Condi. Should be an interesting hearing. (Condi was last before SFRC in Oct. Sen. Kerry's remarks at that hearing previewed his later speech at Georgetown University where he both acknowledged mistakes associated with the IWR vote and showed a set of goals that he would like to see in Iraq that allow troops to be brought home. I wonder what tomorrow will hold.)