A vulnerable House Democrat attacked President Obama’s plans to bypass Congress and hold an international summit on climate change Wednesday, the Hill reports:
Rep. Nick Rahall (D., W.Va.) says Obama's plans to get a "politically binding" international climate agreement endorsed by the United Nations next year is "fruitless" for a president whose popularity is lagging even at home.
"It is fruitless for this administration — or any administration — to negotiate agreements with the rest of the world when it cannot even muster the support of the American people," Rahall said Wednesday in a statement.
"This administration's go it alone strategy is surely less about dysfunction in Congress than about the president's own unwillingness to listen to our coal miners, steelworkers, farmers, and working families," he added.
The Democrat, a 19-term House veteran, is distancing himself from Obama as he fights for his political career against Republican state Sen. Evan Jenkins in West Virginia, where the president's energy policy is deeply unpopular. The Cook Political Report, an online election handicapper, rates his race a "toss up."
