When it comes to the environment and energy, 2006 will be remembered for sky-rocketing gas prices, record-high oil company profits, an acknowledgement by even President Bush that America is addicted to oil, the Alaska BP pipeline spill, and a widespread recognition that human activity is causing global warming to happen far more quickly than previously thought. Unfortunately... Congress did virtually nothing to help solve these problems, with little hope for anything positive to emerge from an anticipated lame duck session.
Oh my. One suggestion that they make is to "Dump the Dirty Dozen" -the 12 elected officials with the worst environmental records.
- Senator Conrad Burns (MT)
- Senator Rick Santorum (PA)
- Senator Jim Talent (MO)
- Senator George Allen (VA)
- Representative Dan Boren (OK)
- Representative Deborah Pryce (OH)
- Representative J.D. Hayworth (AZ)
- Representative Henry Cuellar (TX)
- Representative Katherine Harris (FL)
- Representative Richard Pombo (CA)
- Representative Charles Taylor (NC)
- Representative Heather Wilson (NM)
Isn't it interesting how many of these people show up on other lists of stellar personalities? Rick Santorum was such a hero during the Terri Schiavo case and his comments on intelligent design were truly insightful. (Sarcasm there, in case you missed it.) George Allen slings racial epithets around at campaign stops. Katherine Harris helped George Bush win election by stopping the hand counting of ballots in contested counties in Florida. And Henry Cuellar reminds us that we need to not only get the Republicans out of Congress, we need to get them out of the Democratic party. He's a false Democrat if ever there was one.
I ran the same names through the Children's Defense Fund, the League of Women Voters, the National Coalition Against the Death Penalty, and the National Coalition for the Homeless legislative scorecards and found similarly tragic results. These guys are scary.
But hopefully, they'll only have jobs for 13 more days.
5 comments:
Just a minor nit (from Minneapolis). They may get fired from their jobs in 13 days, but they get to keep them until noon on January 3, 2007. That's when the 110th Congress will be sworn in.
(And now I'm off to go catch a hockey game!)
True nuff! I was too lazy to look up the exact date and you busted me ;)
Don't forget to call the boy. He's expecting you!
And I suppose not all of them are even up for re-election this go-round. I didn't check THAT either :(
You bring up a good point - the environment truly is a valid issue, but gets lost among the George Allen "racial" sensationalism, the Katherine Harris ignorant religion comments, etc.
It would be nice to have a real discussion about the environment instead of politicians using it for a convenient political "talking point."
Sent him an e-mail with my schedule, so we'll see what works out.
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