The Waxman Wane What could hurt a hurting economy more than an environmental extremist as chairman of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee? Meet Rep. Henry Waxman of Beverly Hills. It was a slim margin of 137-122 on Thursday when Democrats voted to buck seniority for next year's session and strip the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives, Michigan's John Dingell, of the chairmanship of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. Long known as "The Truck," the much-feared auto industry partisan chaired that powerful panel during the entire Reagan administration, George H.W. Bush administration, the first two years of Bill Clinton, and for the last two years — nearly three decades as the committee's top Democrat. Dingell is liberal, but he at least fought against excessive emission standards and other Greenpeace wish list items — simply to protect domestic carmakers. Replacing him is a notorious ideological witch hunter who will bully businesses that resist radical environmentalist groups' demands. The naming of Henry Waxman left green groups beside themselves with joy. "Ding-dong the Dingell is gone," cheered the climate blog for the Center for American Progress, the think tank of Obama transition chief and former Clinton White House chief of staff John Podesta. Waxman's election "shows that a majority of the House Democrats are ready to work with the incoming Obama Administration on effective global warming legislation," according to Clean Air Watch — an organization that seems to want NASCAR racing banned because its exhaust fumes are "putting millions of spectators and nearby residents at unnecessary risk of suffering serious health effects." As Competitive Enterprise Institute senior fellow Chris Horner quipped, "Funny how Dems elected a guy to chair Energy and Commerce who opposes both."....