This Is How You Deal With A Bully

The United States has steadfastly blocked any efforts to put in mandatory caps on greenhouse gases at the Bali climate change talks. In response, European leaders said they wouldn't attend Bush's stupid "See, I'm doing SOMETHING" meeting on climate change scheduled for next year. Bush wants this meeting to give the impression that he's committed to further action on the issue. As a result, the United States is budging a bit.

At a news conference, Yvo de Boer, the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, who on Thursday raised serious concerns about the slow pace of the talks, said that countries were “on the brink of agreement.”

“It’s not actually all that much that is outstanding,” he said. “People are working very hard to resolve outstanding issues.”

Negotiations were continuing but the tenor of the conference improved markedly from Thursday when, amid growing frustration with the United States, European nations threatened to boycott separate talks proposed by the Bush administration in Hawaii next month.

In addition to threatening Bush with something he wanted, the assembled countries recognized that he's a lame duck, and decided to essentially ignore his concerns, in the hopes that a new (Democratic) President will be more amenable to emissions targets.

Can we send Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi to Bali so they understand how you deal with a bully? You threaten to take away something they want and you de-emphasize their power. Everything the nations of the world did in Bali could be done in the US Congress.