Rep. Henry Waxman

"That is so stupid, already, for them to be pushing the Keystone pipeline issue in this bill, in this conference," Rep. Henry Waxman told reporters gathered near the Chesapeake Bay for the Democrats' annual caucus retreat. "The pipeline issue is one that the Republicans are obsessing over." "Many of us believe that that pipeline will lock us into a 50 to 100 years of dependence on the dirtiest source of oil," said Waxman, the senior Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He characterized the GOP's Keystone provision as a "special interest earmark" with no business on the tax bill.

One page progressives should take from the Republican playbook is relentlessness. Having just seen the Keystone XL pipeline rejected —in part because they jammed a requirement that President Obama make a decision about it in 60 days into the two-month payroll tax deal made in December—they're at again. Now they want to attach approval of the pipeline to consideration of the payroll tax compromise by the conference panel that seeks to reconcile House and Senate versions:

Indeed. The Congressman deserves a huzzah for looking at the big picture. Not the pipeline per se, but what it means for the long-term future in a world of climate change. But it's an election year. So we'll no doubt be hearing a lot more bogus statistics about how many jobs the pipeline will create, claims so ludicrous that they have sparked a complaint to the Securities and Exchange Commission. We can also expect commentary from pundits and industry-funded shills like the Institute for Energy Research about how this will help free the United States from dependence on foreign oil, Canada apparently having been brought into the Union without getting a star on Old Glory.