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This
is George W. Bush at his best. The Republican party at their most vulnerable and desperate. When you’re being squeezed politically, do what you have to do. It’s never
about finding solutions. It’s about getting by until the next election, because these guys cannot govern. When the going gets tough on energy, Republicans offer a plan to ease environmental
rules, while choking
off clean air. That
Bush was caught unaware of rising gas prices and demand build up, right as we
head towards summer says so much. It’s yet another chapter in the Bush volume, this one entitled, “Incompetence: the energy edition.”
“Our strategic reserve is sufficiently large enough to guard against
any major supply disruption over the next few months,” Mr. Bush said.
“So by deferring deposits until the fall we’ll leave a little more oil
on the market.” He added: “Every little bit helps.”Over the longer term, Mr. Bush said he was asking Congress to repeat $2 billion
in tax breaks put into last year’s energy bill, which he signed, for industry
research in new drilling technologies. Those breaks are spread out over 10
years, and they were pushed by the former Republican leader in the House,
Tom Delay, who has since resigned.Democrats were critical of Mr. Bush’s proposal and his policies in general.
“What happened to Iraq oil, Mr. President?” asked Senator Barbara
Mikulski of Maryland, according The Associated Press.“You said Iraqi oil would pay for the war,” she added. “Ain’t
seen no money. Ain’t seen no oil.”Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey criticized Mr. Bush’s delay in curbing
the tax breaks extended to energy companies. “What we are left wondering
today, is why it took five years” to act to reduce the tax breaks, he
said.
Government by crisis, that’s Republicans. They’ve had years to deal with an
obvious challenge but didn’t have the imagination or the foresight to face it.
Now Republicans are facing foes they never imagined would stand against them.
It could shift politics forever, giving progressives the biggest advantage we’ve
seen in decades.
Conservative hunters and environmentalists are uniting in a common interest.
They’ve found a common enemy: the Bush administration.
These struggles may pale in comparison to the brewing battle over global
warming. As more red-state farmers find their crops affected by rising temperatures,
more ice fishermen notice lakes that no longer freeze in the winter, and more
hunters see wetlands where ducks breed begin to evaporate, concern about climate
change is crossing old political boundaries. Although they may have diverse
starting points and dramatically different reactions to labels like “environmentalist,”
liberal and conservative outdoor activists are discovering that on a range
of issues, their concerns about the earth overlap. In many ways, this brings
them full-circle to the beginning of America’s environmental movement. If
today’s new alliances become a lasting united front, the union could not only
recast American politics with a progressive tilt but have vast implications
for the health of the planet.
As gun owners, though not hunters, we’ve heard this lament from many. I received
a slew of emails from hunters on the subject during Deadeye Dick’s drive-by
hunting disaster. One of the main sponsors of Republicans, the N.R.A., loves
to sell guns, but they could care less about the environment for the people
who own them. As an aside, we are not members of the N.R.A., disrespecting the
“leadership” and their hypocrisy. They don’t care about the 2nd Amendment, which they use as a shield. The N.R.A. is just another corporation out for access through power. But gun owners,
hunters and people who love the outdoors have found Republicans missing in action
on the environment. They need to realize that the N.R.A. is not their friend. Because what the Republicans who control the power in Washington are doing is ruining our planet and the outdoors we love. It’s making allies of people who would have once been political
enemies.
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