In the most political of towns, politics has turned it upside down. A member of the Missouri Congressional delegation says simply, “Washington is in chaos right now.”
Southeast Missouri Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson says the timing might just be perfect for her effort to rein in the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to enforce greenhouse gas emissions.
“Right now, the time could not be better for us to get this bill passed,” Emerson says, referring to the bill she co-sponsors with West-Central Missouri Congressman Ike Skelton, a Democrat.
Timing is everything in legislation, but what does she mean the time could not be better?
“Well, because, I think that we are in a deep breath,” Emerson answers. “We’re in a deep breath situation right now in the Congress. Sometimes, deep breaths are a good thing.”
A deep breath?
“Washington is in chaos right now, pure and simple, because of the election of Scott Brown,” according to Emerson.
Emerson, a Republican, says the election to the United States Senate of Republican Scott Brown in the decidedly Democratic state of Massachusetts has shaken Washington to its core and punctured a dominate Democratic majority. Republicans didn’t have the necessary numbers to filibuster Democratic proposals in the United States Senate, which played out most prominently in the health care debate, but affected other legislation as well. The election of Brown gives them the numbers. Emerson sees the election of Brown as an opportunity for Republicans to have more of a say after being silenced in the 2008 elections.
AUDIO: Brent Martin reports [:60]
