Clearly Reid is running scared on two counts, his own personal fate and that of his party. The recovery is wobbly at best, after all leading Democrats are coming out in favour of retaining the Bush tax cuts, and they are worried new taxes will hurt it even more. A few more bad numbers for the economy between now and November will really hurt the Democrats.
Poll after poll has the public firmly against cap and trade legislation. If there is one thing the Democrats do is pay attention to the polls.
We can expect an attempt to hammer something through during the “lame duck” session until the new House and Senate comes in. They haven’t given up on it merely held off to concentrate on the November elections.
Andrew Ian Dodge is a 40-something writer, consultant and musician. He blogs at andrewiandodge.com.