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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RON BL who wrote (134166)	3/29/2001 10:18:46 PM
From: gao seng	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 769667

<One Republican senator says EPA Administrator Christie Whitman's missteps on the "global warming" issue can be attributed to the influence of holdovers who had worked for her predecessor, Carol Browner, a Clinton appointee and radical environmentalist protégé of Al Gore./> Tuesday March 20 12:01 PM EST BUSH CO2 "REVERSAL" By Robert Novak WASHINGTON -- What is portrayed by environmentalists and Democrats as President Bush bowing to corporate pressure on global warming in fact was something very different. He found himself in a difficult posture because his team proved sloppy and uncoordinated on two occasions, once during last year's presidential election campaign and then again in the early weeks of the new administration. During the campaign, a line was slipped into a speech by George W. Bush embracing the advanced eco-activist position that emissions of carbon dioxide should be regulated. There was absolutely no internal discussion inside the campaign, and no sense by anybody -- including the news media -- that a major policy commitment had been reached. Five months later, Environmental Protection Administrator Christie Whitman picked up the neglected line and exalted it, incorrectly, as Bush doctrine. Such confused free-lancing hardly fits the image of buttoned-down, super-efficient Republicans. But this is essentially a conservative administration, and Bush is not about to replicate Al Gore's alarmism on global warming. While Democratic leaders insinuate that industrial and mining interests rolled over the president, the strongest advocacy came from conservative Cabinet members who were appalled by Whitman's activism. The final decision by Bush himself reflected his own ideology. What, then, was candidate Bush doing embracing the extremist position last fall? Funny things happen during campaigns, and not every point in multi-proposal speeches is properly vetted by the senior staff or the candidate. On Sept. 29 in Saginaw, Mich., Bush unveiled his energy program. In the 49th paragraph (out of 60) in a very long (and less than scintillating) speech, he pledged, without elaboration, "we will require all power plants to meet clean air standards in order to reduce emissions" of four pollutants -- including CO2. In retrospect, this was a stunning gesture to the environmentalists. But it went utterly unnoticed at the time by major newspapers and networks. Reporters, emphasizing Bush's support for oil exploration, missed the half-sentence entirely. The only news media mention I could find of this startling statement was tangential: the AP Online noting that Bush had mispronounced carbon monoxide as "carbon bonoxide" before correcting himself. The journalists were not alone. Last week, two high-level campaign aides now on the White House staff, Josh Bolten and Karl Rove, compared notes. Both had read and edited the speech, but neither could remember the CO2 reference. It never was discussed in campaign councils. The search is now underway to find out who it was that put Bush on Gore's side. Senate Democratic Whip Harry Reid, leading the partisan attack on Bush last week, contended Bush "talked about" CO2 emissions "on a number of other occasions in the campaign." Not true. After Saginaw, it never was mentioned by the candidate. Accordingly, it defies the imagination to believe that Christie Whitman, far away in Trenton, N.J., and busy as governor of New Jersey, could possibly have known about Bush's ignored statement. But environmental activists in the bowels of the EPA surely did. They informed their new boss this year, and Whitman -- herself a global-warming alarmist -- seized on it. Without checking the White House, she declared herself in favor of the "four-pollutant" strategy and contended, incorrectly, that Bush had been "very clear" in support of it during the campaign. What's more, Whitman had a powerful potential ally. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill has advocated the "four-pollutant" strategy and late in February gave the president an urgent memo outlining how to study global warming. The conservative community was in a dither over rumors that none other than their favorite, Vice President Dick Cheney, would announce confirmation of the Saginaw doctrine. But National Economic Adviser Lawrence Lindsey and Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham weighed in against Whitman. Significantly, they had help from Cheney and his staff. Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma led other conservatives in lobbying the administration against the policy. Bush's final decision generated front-page and nationally televised accounts by news media sources dramatically depicting a reversal of policy that they had ignored when it was quietly announced five months earlier. The environmental wars are just beginning, but George W. Bush has not joined the enemy. dailynews.yahoo.com --BUSH MUST PURGE THE LIBERALS: NOT JUST PAYBACK, BUT PRESERVATION By: Carol Devine-Molin etherzone.com

To: RON BL who wrote (134166)	3/29/2001 10:48:54 PM
From: Kevin Rose	Respond to of 769667

He sounds like a real hellraiser. Republicans probably view him the same as Demos view this Traficant fellow. I think having a few hellraisers to kick the status quo in the ass is a good thing. I give McCain points for that. But I suppose it can go too far. I'm all for getting something done, for god's sake. I have a leadership quote that I hope Pres. Bush has learned. I learned from a smart guy I used to work with (he probably stole it from someone else): "I may be wrong, but I'm not confused"