Boxer battles on

Republican senators may have blocked recent proposed legislation to tackle global warming, but authors of the bill are far from throwing in the towel.

In a letter published in the San Jose Mercury News, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-California) pointed out that the Senate was close to approving the Climate Security Act, which she and Sen. Joe Lieberman had sponsored. Her resolve comes despite a filibuster that ultimately shuts the door on the issue for the remainder of the year.

Boxer noted that 54 senators favored the landmark bill (sixty votes were needed to keep the bill afloat) and that two of them, John McCain and Barack Obama, are presidential candidates. She vowed to work with the next president on a comprehensive federal climate law, since President Bush had threatened to veto the bill even before seeing it.