How Health Care Is Hurting the Chances for an Energy Bill

There are plenty of ways that partisan maneuvering over the past year has eroded trust on Capitol Hill. Each party has squarely opposed the other, almost unanimously. But there are signs that the heightened tension over health care could spread to other issues, including an energy measure that was once touted as possibly being a bipartisan effort.

Look no further than Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has shown over the past year that he’s one of the few Republicans willing to work with Democrats—but only when it suits his interests. On health care, it doesn’t, and he’s vowed to stand with his party and vote no on the final package in the Senate. But on climate, it does, and Graham has been the only aisle crosser for an omnibus energy and climate bill that the Senate may take up next.

Except he may not be able. Graham recently told that it's not Democratic ideas that are killing party relations; different parties are expected to have different viewpoints. It's the use of shady parliamentary maneuvers that's increasing distrust of Democrats. So much that the likelihood of an energy bill is looking slimmer by the day. In a perfect world, the respected Graham would be able to win over colleagues to get behind a broad measure that would offer goodies for both parties. But the tension has gotten so high that it’s getting almost impossible for him to persuade fellow Republicans to work with Democrats on anything

That’s too bad. The bill that Graham is working on with Democratic Sens. John Kerry and Joe Lieberman is looking like a pretty agreeable bill. It’s expected to include incentives for energy innovation and other market subsidies to cut back on oil imports, two things Republicans love. It may also do something to confront climate change, which is the holy grail for granola-munching Democrats. But Graham says both parties may be out of luck. Peoples’ dissolving trust of Congress gives Republicans every reason not to play ball, which makes Graham’s bipartisan effort, well, rather partisan—and not on his side.

That’s why Graham and some Republicans in the House have begun to push the White House to take on energy and climate next, before another contentious debate squanders the little trust that’s left. “[Energy] is one issue where the president has been great. He's saying all the right things to give us a chance to become energy-independent, clean up the air, and create jobs,” Graham said. But, he warns, the arrogance of the president and questionable voting methods will “destroy the ability of this country to work together.”

Some writers have taken that to mean Graham’s ready to throw in the towel on future negotiations, climate and otherwise. A Graham spokesman tells me that’s not the case, and that the senator is staying committed to getting an energy bill to the president’s desk. But he’s also warning Democrats—and he’s doing it very publicly—that if they keep up these antics, for their next legislative battle, no matter what the issue, they’ll have fewer Republican allies than they already do. And that’s saying something.