The autopsy report for the 109th Congress is not complex. In my view, three things brought them down:

  1. Stupid ideas
  2. executed incompetently
  3. often by criminals.

Fix those three little things …

In other news, California’s Prop 87, which would have raised $4 billion to help cure our oil addiction through a tax on oil drilling, went down in defeat. Oil companies spent upwards of $100 million in an effort to convince Californians that collective suicide is a good idea, and they were — unfortunately — successful.

Washington State’s ballot initiative to establish a renewable portfolio standard passed.

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With control of the House shifting, Pombo would have been eunuched anyway, but his defeat brings a welcome dose of schadenfreude. As a frosh, Jerry McNerney is not going to have a big role setting agendas, but he knows the wind business inside out, and we’ve had some good solar discussions. He gets it. And that’s a welcome change.