*LIBERALS LOSE POLLUTION FIGHT: In a victory for new Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R.-Okla.), the Senate on January 22 defeated a Democratic amendment to the omnibus spending bill that would have delayed changes in the clean-air rules proposed December 31 by the Bush Administration. The new rules would relax Clinton-era standards and give coal-burning industrial plants more flexibility in upgrading their equipment. An amendment sponsored by presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards (D.-N.C.) that would have delayed implementation of the new rules for six months while the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) studied their effects was defeated 46 to 50.
The Senate instead passed, 51 to 45, an alternative proposed by Inhofe that allows the Bush rules to go into effect in March while the NAS conducts the study. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christie Todd Whitman lobbied senators to vote for the Inhofe amendment. (See rollcalls in HUMAN EVENTS next week.)
*DEMOCRATS STILL OPPOSE ESTRADA: If confirmed by the Senate, Miguel Estrada would be the first Hispanic to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Estrada has been waiting for a Senate Judiciary Committee decision since May 2001. His hearing was held last September, but the Democrat-controlled committee refused to vote on him. New Chairman Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah), announcing there will be no additional hearing, has promised a quick vote this year, putting Estrada at the top of his judicial agenda. Though they cannot find a smoking gun, Senate Democrats are still trying to delay approval of Estrada because they fear he holds conservative views, and that President Bush is grooming him for a Supreme Court nomination.
Hatch was hoping for a committee vote last Friday, but Democrats on the panel were trying to delay a vote until Thursday, January 30, apparently hoping they will come up with something that will sink the nomination. "There are senators who would rather not give him the benefit of the doubt, senators looking for a reason to defeat him as opposed to looking for a reason to herald his intelligence, his capabilities, his talent," President Bush said in October.
*DROPPING 'BLUE SLIPS' FOR JUDGES: Sen. Hatch also wants to make it harder for Democratic senators to unilaterally block President Bush's judicial nominees who come from their home states. Hatch announced last week that he would drop the requirement that both senators from a given state submit positive reviews-or "blue slips"-for a nominee to receive committee consideration. There will be screaming from the Democrats, but if committee Republicans go along with Hatch, Democrats will have only the filibuster as a recourse against conservative judges.
*CONTROVERSIAL MATRICULA CONSULAR: As Mexican and other consulates in the United States issue an ID card that illegal immigrants are using around the country, a dozen congressmen led by Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus Chairman Rep. Tom Tancredo (R.-Colo.) have written Secretary of State Colin Powell. They asked him to do something about the issuance of the card, called a matricula consular. In addition to Tancredo, Republican Representatives Todd Akin (Mo.), Jo Ann Davis (Va.), Nathan Deal (Ga.), John Doolittle (Calif.), Virgil Goode (Va.), Sam Johnson (Tex.), Walter Jones (N.C.), Charlie Norwood (Ga.), Dana Rohrabacher (Calif.), Lamar Smith (Tex.) and John Sullivan (Okla.) all signed the letter.
"The governments of Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras have increased their efforts to provide identification cards to their nationals living illegally in the United States. Concurrent with this activity, Mexican consular offices have undertaken a massive lobbying effort to persuade local authorities to accept this documentation for identification purposes," they wrote. "While all governments have a responsibility to look after their citizens residing abroad, they have no right to actively pursue policies that seek to undermine local laws nor should they use their consular officials as lobbyists for such an agenda. While the issuance of national identification cards is nothing new, providing them with the express purpose of evading the U.S. law is something else entirely."
*UMICH CASE GOOD FOR BUSH: For all the attacks from Democratic hopefuls on the President's decision to intervene in the University of Michigan affirmative action cases, his position is apparently shared by most Americans. According to a just-completed Time magazine survey, 54% of adults oppose Michigan-style programs that give racial preferences to selected minorities, while 39% approve. A Newsweek poll showed even stronger anti-preference sentiments, with whites opposing such programs 73% to 22%, and blacks opposing preferences 56% to 38%.
*SHARPTON CHALLENGES MEDIA: The Rev. Al Sharpton is causing heartburn among Democrats as he plots his campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2004. After announcing that he would ask all the other Democratic candidates for their positions on slavery reparations, Sharpton told New York Newsday columnist Jimmy Breslin on January 20 that he would refuse to be held accountable by the press for his own scandals, as long as white Democrats are given a free pass. "The next time anybody wants to know about Tawana Brawley, I'm going to ask them, 'Do you ask Teddy Kennedy about Chappaquiddick? Do you ask Hillary Clinton about her husband? Do you ask Clinton?'"
Meanwhile, some Democratic operatives have hatched a strategy to try to prevent Sharpton from embarrassing the party by making a surprisingly good showing or even by snatching the nomination in a crowded field. By running black candidates in various state primaries-such as disgraced former Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun in Illinois-some Democratic strategists hope to derail the volatile reverend by cutting into his base. Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe was reportedly to meet with Moseley-Braun this Monday to discuss her plans.
