Tennessee's Corker Emerges Near the Center of Republican Hypocrisy on Confirmations

TPM with the catch:

By holding up [Obama's nominees for EPA and the Council on Environmental Quality], Senate Republicans are doing more than just signaling their discontent that they won't get to question and vote on Browner -- although Sen. Bob Corker [R-TN] suggests to the Times that [prospective Obama senior policy advisor Carol] Browner be called in for a "quasi-confirmation" hearing. They're previewing their strategy to knock down the climate regulation bill that Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), environment committee chairman, will release later this year.

Here's how it might look: After Boxer's climate bill emerges, Republicans would immediately protest the involvement of Browner, a White House adviser who was never fully vetted by the Senate. (Never mind that installing senior aides in the White House to avoid confirmation was a hallmark of George Bush.)

Not only is Bob Corker calling for hearings that he never would have demanded for the Bush Administration, but he is obviously attempting to throw a monkey wrench in the Obama Administration's quick response to our energy and environment problems, including any regulatory reform that might prevent future catastrophic ash spills like the one here in his own home state.