Follow up on the Health Care Bill/Climate Bill Nexus

In yesterday's "Graham: Use of reconciliation for health care will hurt climate effort" I said:

Senator Kerry just beshat himself.

Here's a less juvenile analysis from Mother Jones:

Will Health Care Reform Help or Hinder a Climate Bill?

It looks like Congress may finally pass health care reform this week. Environmental advocates have been bemoaning the fact that the prolonged health care debate has tangled up action on climate. But could passage of the bill actually do more to screw up the chances of passing climate and energy legislation? Lindsey Graham – the only Republican actively engaging with Democrats on climate – warned yesterday that moving health care without Republican support may ruin hopes for future bipartisanship.

"If they do this, it's going to poison the well for anything else they would like to achieve this year or thereafter," Graham said on ABC's "This Week” on Sunday, warning against using reconciliation to move the bill forward.

Among Republicans, Graham is one of the few that the administration might care about. In addition to working with John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) on a climate and energy package, he’s the basically the lone GOP collaborator on Guantanamo and immigration (though he’s had some harsh words for Obama on that of late, too).

He said, however, that maybe the Obama administration would do well to focus on climate and energy--an area where there is some bipartisan interest in collaboration--before moving to other contentious issues....MORE

HT: Dr. Hazlett at the Climate+Energy Project
In other connections, Real Time Economics has:

White House Officials Link Economic Recovery to CO2 Bill