While this appointment won't (and shouldn't) warm the heart of any progressive, I think it speaks volumes about Boehner's desire to cut deals rather than appease the Tea-baggers and get boxed in to a no action agenda for the next two years. The Red Staters must be apoplectic with this news today...more below the fold.
...Rep. Fred Upton (Mich.) will be the next leader of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
Upton, meanwhile, won out over Reps. Joe L. Barton (Tex.), John Shimkus (Ill.) and Cliff Stearns (Fla.) for the Energy and Commerce chairmanship.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
I know Fred Upton only slightly and dislike his positions on a wide range of issues. However, he has a track record that tells me that he doesn't take marching orders from Limbaugh or the other wing nuts. He's been regularly excoriated in his primary races as a RINO. Upton is the scion of the family who founded Whirlpool. He was a long term protege of the now hated (by the right) Reagan OMB director, David Stockman, who recently stated that:
IF there were such a thing as Chapter 11 for politicians, the Republican push to extend the unaffordable Bush tax cuts would amount to a bankruptcy filing.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
I think Upton is a guy who thinks for himself and one President Obama can work with, as opposed to the last E & C Chair, Joe "Obama's shaking down BP" Barton (R-Big Oil). Erick Erickson (it burns to type the name) called Upton's voting record "sorry". That's music to my ears! Here is is why the wingnuts are up in arms, according to Red State. On Upton...
THIS IS THE MAN WHO CAME UP WITH THE IDEA TO BAN THE LIGHTBULB!!
Voted YES for TARP
Voted YES on the auto bailout
Voted YES on Cash for Clunkers
Voted NO on 7 of the last 9 RSC Budgets
Voted YES on the Farm Bill
Voted YES on the 2005 Highway Bill
Voted NO to cap farm subsidies
Voted YES four times to extend unemployment benefits
Voted NO to end milk subsidies
Voted NO to cut sugar subsidies
Voted NO to cut NEA spending
Voted NO to cut AMTRAK spending
Voted YES to increase funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
OMG, He likes Ken Burns...
Voted YES on Patriot Tax – a surtax on high income earners
Voted YES for Sarbanes-Oxley
Voted YES to increase the minimum wage
Voted YES on energy bill with new CAFÉ standards and tax hikes
Voted NO to waive Davis-Bacon
Voted YES to criminalize "price-gouging"
Voted YES for SCHIP
Voted NO to privatize postal service for 20 communities
Voted 7 of 9 times to increase congressional pay
Voted YES on No Child Left Behind
http://www.redstate.com/...
The comments on the link make for good comedy if you're in the mood.
As I said, I HATE a ton of the policy Upton champions (he's against sensible climate change legislation ,in favor of opening up ANWAR, repealing Health care reform, he opposes gay marriage, he's no champion of net neutrality and supports corporate media) so Democrats are going to have to watch this guy like a hawk.
One stark contrast to Waxman is on the issue of Net neutrality. Last fall, Waxman drew up a plan designed to win telco and tech community support on the long-debated issue, and the proposal became the framework for a Net neutrality compromise offered by FCC chairman Julius Genachowski last week. But Upton called it a "job killing" measure and said, "Our new majority will use rigorous oversight, hearings and legislation to fight the FCC's overt power grab."
http://www.variety.com/...
However, I applaud his membership on bodies like the Coalition for Autism Research and Education (Congressional Autism Caucus) and am happy that a creep like Joe Barton, who tried to shake down the disabity community by holding the Combating Autism Act of 2006 hostage in committee, won't get power over this important committee again via a term limit waiver. If Boehner and I both hate the guy....jeez he's got to be a world class tool.
Finally, I've wondered for a long, long time whether a lot of Upton's stated "policy" is much more than a sleight of hand act with his own base. Upton seems to have a lot of "Zelig" in him.
Zelig is a 1983 American mockumentary film written and directed by Woody Allen, and starring Allen and Mia Farrow. Allen plays Zelig, a curiously nondescript enigma who is discovered for his remarkable ability to transform himself to resemble anyone he's near.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
If any of you have additional insight, I'd love to hear it.