Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog » washington

Regulations, Contractors, and the Gulf Oil Spill

dine — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 15:17:55 +0000

BP blame game

New Orleans The wave of news comments was provoked by the release of an almost 400 page report by the National Oil Spill Commission in Washington head by former Florida Senator and Governor Bob Graham and former Environmental Protection Agency chief William Reilly during Republican administrations. In the inimitable words of Aaron Viles of Gulf Restoration Network, this commission was “not a bunch of bomb throwers.” Their recommendations included improved regulations, dedication of a significant percentage of the BP settlement money to Gulf Coast restoration, and raising the liability cap on companies making Tr mess. Reasonable observers might even say that the Commission had not gone nearly far enough, especially when the front page picture on my hometown paper, The Times Picayune, had a fisherman on his knees begging Kenneth Feinberg, the fund administrator, to release promised money since he was without heat and utilities now. Even Senator Mary Landrieu, who Lord love her, almost never misses an opportunity to apologize for the oil companies, expressed herself satisfied with the report, so how could anyone be against moving forward on what is bound to be weak tea.

Most interesting to me were Reilly’s comments about contractors where a lot of the accountability needs to be increased. He noted that the big companies “dependency upon contractors who operate in virtually every one of the world’s oceans” is at the core of the problem. He reasonably doubts that this could be anything but a “systemic problem,” because to do so we would have “to believe also that Halliburton would only have supplied faulty cement to BP. Or that Transocean, on any other rig but a BP rig, would have detected gas rising in the drill pipe.” The problem of down-the-chain lack of accountability and reliance on contractors keeps cropping up everywhere whether in the Gulf or Iraq or Afghanistan or anywhere on the service and production chain. This is huge, unanswered problem in modern social and economic society where responsibility and accountability is totally sacrificed at the altar of cheaper pricing, shady dealing, and “who me, not me, who you, not you” finger pointing and foot shuffling.

So much is at stake in every endeavor that we just have to do better!

Town Hall Ruckus

jstuart — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 17:21:41 +0000

Washington The buzz before, after, and during every meeting I had in DC and the metro area at the end of the week focused on the ruckus and eruptions that had broken out in Tampa and around St. Louis at various town hall meetings for Democratic congressional representatives. The numbers were large. Crowds were raucous. Attacks were contentious and directed at wild fears and concerns around the Obama healthcare package. It was easy to smell the fear inside the Beltway.

The organizing is somewhat impressive and a good reminder of the committed, activist base that is red hot and ready to trot when they get the call. Also impressive is the right’s ability to use their media tools so effectively to mobilize their base through Fox News, websites, and various radio commentators. They turned out. They were loud. They put on the heat.

I wonder why we aren’t doing more of that for these same issues that we are so desperate to pass into legislation? If this were sports, we would be accused of playing conservative ball and trying to protect our lead. What lead?!?

Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal chimed in with some ridiculous cheerleading that started with reprimanding the President that he shouldn’t have ever gone there. That somehow it was a mistake to think that one should try to reform healthcare. Huh?

These people are all elected not for some honorific sinecure, but because they are all supposedly willing to strap it on and fight for their constituents (us!) and maybe even fight for what they believe.

Congressman John Dingell from Michigan was quoted as saying a little yelling is not going to change his position about the need to have healthcare coverage for everyone. Another story in the Journal, focused on a newly elected Democratic Congressman from the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Frank Kratovil. He was looking for 30 or so more than 300 packed the room. He knew enough to say that he was glad to hear what people had to say.

What’s worrisome to me is in a swing district like his that had been republican for more than 15 years before his election, if someone like Kratovil feels the fear and hears the herd charging up behind him, and doesn’t see folks like all of us who are as committed and passionate about real reform, where is he going to stand when asked which side is he on?

The right may not have all of these tactics under control yet, but they are reminding us that you don’t win any of these issues in the Beltway. They are all won at the grassroots in hand to hand combat.

Speaker Pelosi maybe nailing folks as “Astroturf” protestors, but I’m not seeing us take the gloves off on healthcare, employee rights, immigration or anything else to let Congress really understand the grassroots demand for change from our side either. We are not going to win these fights on the sidelines.

Progressive Tension

jstuart — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:11:07 +0000

Washington The newly named Campaign for America’s Future, which bills itself as an annual meeting for progressives, opened in DC yesterday. I’ve attended several of these meetings in the past, and an undercurrent of the session seemed to me to indicate that progressives are disoriented and confused.

Robert Borsage in his opening remarks seemed to acknowledge the underlying tension without trying to resolve it. He said that when people asked if they intended to work with the administration or push the administration, they answered, “yes.” There was a laugh in the room that was still filling, but it seemed hollow to me and the morning seemed to establish the tone.

The crispness of the critique was gone. These were sessions in which old friends seemed to be circling around the issues and the evidence of being “in” or “out” with the direction of Obama and his machinery.There was celebration and joy of the election, and there was great hope, but there was a tentativeness everywhere it seemed to me. This was “liberals in love.” People were holding their breath and desperately hoping that they would see real wins with real meanings on key issue, but they were so resigned to following the President that they seemed to not want to jinx anything through sharp comment or decisive action.

Past meetings had been loud and crowded. This session on the first day seemed so much smaller, quieter, and subdued. It also seemed grey, old, and white in a way that makes one uneasy about self-identifying as a progressive. The debate, if there was any, seemed about pragmatism and how to reconcile to it, rather than progressive principles and how to push now to realize them.

This meeting seemed to be stifled in a classic Beltway dilemma where isolated from any base the main point seemed to be trying to find a position and posture to find a way to orbit this larger sun. Maybe we are not used to being close to winning? Maybe we have forgotten that some of this same glow was felt for Clinton and even Carter, but we definitely need to snap out of it if we’re going to carry weight in the fight.

I commented to a friend over dinner that it seemed we were on our knees debating whether to simply kiss butt on the one hand or just pray on the other. Neither seems to me to be a winning strategy, or frankly, even helpful in getting the administration and the work done.

If this is our time, we had best figure it out fast!