Chuck is best hope for Green

Senate Democrats gave grudging credit Wednesday to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal rollout, but said it’s going to take Chuck Schumer to make real progress curbing global warming.

The comments came a day after Senate Democrats voted “present” on a Green New Deal resolution that Republican Leader Mitch McConnell offered in hopes of tying Democrats to a plan that Republicans describe as a socialist disaster.

Democrats called that a stunt and said they would come up with their own ideas, and unveiled a new Special Committee on the Climate Crisis to do so.

At a news conference Wednesday, they admitted it had little power, but would tell America what Democrats want to do, and would lay the groundwork for real progress — if Democrats can win control of the Senate in 2020 and make Schumer the new majority leader.

“We’re going to be out there pushing, pushing, pushing. This is the role,” Schumer said. “If we were in the majority, we’d put some things together and pass something right away. We’re not, and this is the best role we can play. And we think it’s a darn good role.”

Hawaii Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz, who is chairing the new committee, said it would pull ideas from across the Democratic caucus to offer solutions, and perhaps advance some of them quickly.

“But the truth is, we’re preparing to lay the predicate for action when and if Chuck Schumer becomes majority leader,” he said.

Some climate activists have questioned the sincerity of Democratic leaders on both sides of Capitol Hill, holding protests in both the offices of Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Some Democrats have long championed aggressive steps to combat climate change, but the new push by leaders comes after those protests and after Ocasio-Cortez (photo), who cheered on teenagers sitting in at Pelosi’s office, introduced the Green New Deal.