George W. Bush won the popular vote in the 2004 election, and much to his surprise, that was apparently his final brush with the word "popular." Since then, as he's tried to spend his political capital, he's found that that account has non-sufficient funds. Now, with the 2006 mid-term elections appearing on the horizon, he seems shocked to find long time allies and water boys taking two or three steps back and avoiding photo ops, lest they be associated with the president and his policies come campaign time. Even Bill Frist, the ultimate water boy, came out against Bush's policies on stem cell research, courageously tapping into an opinion reportedly shared by 70% of the American public. The number of Republicans high-stepping backwards away from Bush's social security plan, hands in the air in a "Wasn't me who committed the foul, ref" gesture, must be shocking to the administration. But all of those acts of disloyalty can be attributed to the political maneuverings of Republicans trying to convince the public that they're better and worthy of office in 2006 or beyond.
A much more painful tweak to Bush's rejection complex has come recently in the form of states, alone and in groups, bypassing his policies in favor of ones that make sense. A significant example is the recent pact by the governments of nine Northeastern states to reduce the emissions levels of greenhouse gasses from their power plants by upwards of 10%, far surpassing the number the Bush administration called for. But why would this even be necessary? A quick history may be in order.
When George Bush sent Christy Todd Whitman, then head of the EPA, to be our representative to the Kyoto Conference, she believed she was there to lead us on an important mission, to get us on board with the world wide fight against global warming. What she didn't know was that George W. Bush set her up. He never intended for the U.S. to sign on to the Kyoto Accord, and though double talk reasons have been given that don't hold up under any kind of examination, the real reason is clear: the kinds of limitations, reparations and retrofitting that would be required of businesses would be extremely costly, and that means the almighty profit margin would suffer. Whitman was left hanging out to dry, oblivious, shaking hands and making promises until the day Bush told his stunned and disbelieving underling to pull the plug and come home. Double talk and smoke screens aside, it doesn't take a genius to see that the Bush Administration doesn't care about global warming. Let's face facts here, they only began admitting global warming exists this year, light years behind the scientific community they often use as a political target.
Working just the way they're supposed to work, individual states have now said this isn't good enough for them and they require safer emissions standards. Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont joined together and hammered out a little something called The Northeastern Agreement, which, among other things, calls for much stricter control of Carbon Dioxide, the worst of the greenhouse gases. There are over 600 electric generators creating Carbon Dioxide in those nine states. What these states are doing, this 10% improvement, could make a world of difference. Under the agreement, power plants have plenty of time to retrofit and prepare. Emissions will be capped where their average emissions level was between 2000 and 2004, with an end goal of a 10% reduction 2015 to 2020.
The Northeastern Alliance is just the beginning. Washington, California and Oregon are working out a Northwest agreement, and conventional wisdom says even states not actively
looking to get involved may eventually succumb to peer pressure. Individual cities have been forming alliances, as well. Earlier in the year, ten Mayors agreed to enforce regulations that would dramatically cut greenhouse emissions in their cities, and since then the agreement has circulated and picked up the signatures of 176 other Mayors. Who knows how many cities and states are just in the planning phase today? All we know for sure is that the people of this country are clearly taking care of themselves, and the planet, because their president and his administration refused to do so. It's an old topic with new life on Capitol Hill, and the fallout, in the form of more former allies and water boys falling away from the fold, should be coming up next. You can bet your boots the final result of all this will be the Federal laws that we should have been given in the first place, but don't expect them to come from the administration that never met a mistake it couldn't deny.
We should stop ranking on him now, though. Put yourself in his place: protestors camping outside your ranch calling you a liar, friends abandoning you and badmouthing your policies in the press, approval and trust ratings so low you have to crawl to read them, and now uppity states taking your power away... How much rejection can one president take?
[Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent the Publisher or Editors of Cosmik Debris Magazine. Um, except... wait... the author IS the Editor In Chief, so... never mind.]
