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Politics : Piffer Thread on Political Rantings and Ravings -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Original Mad Dog who wrote (1014)	3/19/2001 4:56:58 PM
From: Oral Roberts	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14610

Unfortunately I have been getting some of the same feelings. His reversal on CO2 struck me as one of those gee I'm just saying what the audience in front of me wants to hear kind of deals. I truly hope he doesn't slide down the slope of governing by poll. I wasn't very fond of the last 8 years and would be very unhappy with the next 4 if it is some of the same old, same old. Reagan was a much keener mind then many give him credit for. I suspect when he said something he did mean it regardless of the flack because he had thought it through quite clearly in his own mind.

To: Original Mad Dog who wrote (1014)	3/20/2001 3:20:36 PM
From: SmoothSail	Respond to of 14610

Saw this article in the LA Times today - it's Arianna Huffington's column on the subject of broken promises. Wonder if this is just the beginning. You would think he would take a lesson from his old man and not break campaign promises - especially this early on. It's a tough situation. People need power but we also need air to breathe. ariannaonline.com The Letter Christie Todd Whitman Should Write Filed March 19, 2001 In a perfect world -- you know, one in which presidents kept their promises and Environmental Protection officials actually protected the environment -- Christie Todd Whitman would have turned in her letter of resignation by now. But since I know how busy she is scrambling to and fro on damage-control duty, I decided to save her some time by penning this first draft for her: Dear Mr. President: When you honored me by asking me to join your Cabinet as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, I didn't know the title would be ironic. I naively assumed the post would have something to do with protecting the environment, as opposed to protecting the bottom line of your campaign contributors. I thought that was Don Evans' job over at Commerce. As you know, taking my lead from your clearly enunciated campaign pledge to -- read my lips -- ``require all power plants to meet clean air standards in order to reduce emission of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury and carbon dioxide,'' I appeared on numerous talk shows reiterating your position with the passion it deserved. I even went to Italy earlier this month to meet with my counterparts from the Group of Eight industrialized nations and assured them that you believe ``global climate change is the greatest environmental challenge that we face.'' As they say back in Jersey, my bad. And I took it in stride when, under pressure from energy industry lobbyists, you chose to remove that line about carbon dioxide and the importance of clean air from your big speech to Congress. I was disturbed but not alarmed. I figured it was merely a rhetorical concession -- not a preview of a full-scale surrender to the forces that not-so-privately question the very existence of the EPA. But that was before a friend forwarded me the e-mail circulating among members of the energy crowd's ``Cooler Heads Coalition'' high-fiving themselves on their ``famous victory'' -- i.e. convincing you to abandon your one major pledge to the environment. You claimed that in executing your CO2 flip-flop you were ``responding to realities'' and taking care ``not to take actions that could harm consumers.'' But there in black and white was the ``reality'' you were actually responding to: ``President Bush and Vice President Cheney have made the right decision... with a little good advice from their friends'' This gloating was nauseating, but not nearly as nauseating as the vice president claiming that your campaign position on carbon dioxide was a mistake because it's not really a pollutant. By way of a reply, I can't do better than quote David Doniger of the Natural Resources Defense Council: ``If carbon dioxide isn't a pollutant, maybe ketchup is a vegetable after all.'' I also find it interesting to note that despite a similar concerted opposition from the energy industry, your father had the guts to go ahead and do the right thing, signing an acid rain program into law as part of the Clean Air Act of 1990. But where your dad stood firm, you caved. Your enemies might say it's the difference between a decorated WW II pilot and an AWOL Air National Guardsman. But I know it's simply the fact that campaign contributions from the energy industry to our Grand Old Party reached an astounding $47,370,758 this election. Cheney called me ``a good soldier'' -- something I was initially willing to be. After all, I was governor of New Jersey, and I know that's what underlings are for. So I had decided to swallow the personal humiliation of being left twisting in the wind by your breathtaking abandonment of what I thought we both believed. But then I saw myself on television -- replayed again and again -- answering a young American's question about why you had backed down. I couldn't help but cringe as I watched myself defend the indefensible: ``Well,'' I sputtered, ``actually he didn't back --well, he did; I mean in the sense that he made a very definitive statement.'' These linguistic contortions left me queasy and with no other choice -- if I was to sleep at night -- than to send you this letter. I remember the lump I felt in my throat back in 1973 when Elliot Richardson resigned his Cabinet post rather than acquiesce to Richard Nixon's demand that he fire Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox. I had the same reaction seven years later when Cyrus Vance also took a principled stand and resigned as secretary of state in protest over President Carter's military action in Iran. ``You would not be well served in the coming weeks and months,'' he wrote to Carter, ``by a secretary of state who could not offer you the public backing you need on an issue and decision of such extraordinary importance.'' My feelings exactly. As Richardson told Nixon: ``Mr. President, it would appear that we have a different perception of the public interest.'' And since I cannot face the prospect of looking my children in the eye and explaining why I stood by while the president I served was selling out their health, the health of their children and the health of our planet, I respectfully submit my resignation -- and bid you goodbye.