Posted on 06/04/2002 7:14:24 PM PDT by TLBSHOW
President Bush has dismissed the report put out by his administration warning that human activities are behind climate change that is having significant effects on the environment. The report to the UN, written by the EPA, puts most of the blame for recent global warming on the burning of fossil fuels by human beings. The president said, dismissively, as described by AP, "I read the report put out by the bureaucracy."
Folks, I had a conversation with people in the White House this morning over all of this, and this is pretty much what I heard. The EPA was referred to as a "bureaucracy," that did things on its own over there, and the report went out, with not a whole lot of attention paid to it. Much of what was interpreted by the New York Times was not correct, in terms of the administration's view of the report. Now we have the president dismissing the report.
We played the sound bite of the president's remarks on Tuesday's show, and you can hear it for yourself in the audio link below, along with more analysis, but here is a transcript of the question, and the president's entire answer:
QUESTION: Mr. President. Do you plan new initiatives to combat global warming?
BUSH: No - I have laid out that very comprehensive initiative. I read the report put out by the bureaucracy. I do not support the Kyoto treaty. The Kyoto treaty would severely damage the United States' economy. And I don't accept that. I accept the alternative that we've put out - that we can grow our economy and at the same time, through technologies, improve our environment.
This sounds to me like a pretty clear, open and shut case dismissing the contention of the report. One of the central aims of the Kyoto Protocol is to blame human activity for global warming. The president is saying that he does not agree with that when he says, "I read the report put out by the bureaucracy. I do not support the Kyoto treaty." This is a big step. There are few who would do this, who would make a correction like this in the heat and the thick of things. President Bush has done the right thing here, and that is ultimately worth a whole lot of support and applause.
Perhaps this episode is sort of like when we learned that the federal government was going to buy up all those oil and gas leases in Florida to see to it that there was no new oil drilling or gas drilling either in the gulf or on three wildlife reserves in Florida. The reason the administration gave was, "We don't want to destroy the environment. We don't want to do damage to the pristine countryside." In the process, they undercut their own desire to do just that, drill for oil in ANWR. We were all scratching our heads trying to figure that out. I don't know that I have an answer, but it may well be that some things are just not calculated as far out as they should be. It will be interesting to see if anyone is held responsible at the EPA for this, as we discuss in From Rush's Stack of Stuff: Bush Dismisses EPA Report, But Will He Dismiss Those Who Put It Out?
One thing that we know for sure, my friends, is that in most cases the attempt to do the right thing is always there with this administration. I know that actions are more important than intentions, but couple that with the fact that we're talking about somebody here, George W. Bush, who has a profound level of integrity and decency. People want to believe and trust the president. That's why his approval numbers are so high. What he has done today is one of the reasons why his approval rating is understandable, and greatly deserved.
Folks, here's just a little bit more on the Bush strategy, and a few things to keep in mind as you try to analyze this: The White House thinks their strategy is working like a charm and, really, who could argue with them? Their strategy is not to really spell out their own agenda and fight for it no matter what. Their strategy is to advance a centrist agenda that consists of a sizable percentage of the left's agenda, issue by issue. In the process, they're picking off Democrat votes. They're doing two things. They're denying Democrats issues to run on, and at the same time giving specific members of the Democrat coalition reasons to vote for Bush or against the Democrat candidates. The way they're looking at it, it's working.
The second element to this is a little less clear, but there's something at play here that I underestimated for a long while and I won't again. Whether it's right or wrong, or whether it's an incorrect standard, is not the point now. Bush is benefiting from the fact that there was a far greater dislike and disgust with the Clinton administration among the general population than we ever knew.
We were following presidential approval polls and concluding that over half the country thought Clinton was just the greatest thing since sliced bread, and that's not the case. What we saw in those polls was the natural tendency of people in this country to support their president, whoever and whatever he is. It takes a lot for presidents to destroy the bond of trust they have with the American people, because the American people have such respect and awe for the office of the presidency. So in contrast, Bush is so far ahead of Clinton when it comes to these basic human characteristics - honesty, integrity, decency, and character - that he's getting a double whammy benefit from all of this.
Plus, we can't leave the war out of the equation. The way he has conducted himself in the aftermath of September 11th inspires confidence. As long as he doesn't do anything to interrupt or weaken the bond of trust that people have, he's going to be riding high, and it's going to be smooth sailing ahead. Bush doesn't look political at all. He doesn't appear to be doing anything he's doing because of politics, even though he is, but it doesn't look that way. He's just riding high for all sorts of reasons. As far as he's concerned, this strategy of his is working and I don't see what there is to suggest that he needs to change the way he's doing things.
The desire that so many people have to want to believe the absolute best of this man is not going away. This belief is being reinforced every day by his own actions, as it was on his dismissal of the EPA report on global warming. The investment in George W. Bush is being validated each and every day as people see him, listen to him, and hear him speak. He's really riding the crest of a wave that few presidents have, and he's making the most of it, in his own way.
In 1989, when I first started listening to Rush, Bush the elder was president. Rush actally had a pretty good sized national audience then. His show was better,funny , more interesting, and without FR, full of info not easily accessible to most people.
Now, Rush just " mails in " his performance, and he creates ( as he did with this garbage ! ) anger, where none needs to exist. Firstly, he'sangeredalarge portion of his fan base ... against himself. Secondly, he's managed to inflame a group , against President Bush, in order to get ratings and because he is too lazy to do the intellectual work needed to do his show. When he starts his push to re-elect President Bush ( and he will ! ), those people are going to feel betrayed by him ! He'll just keep losing his audience . It won't matter,as far as money goes, he's locked into a long, very profiable contract. What will eat him alive ( he has one gigantic ego ) , is his growing irrelivance. Frankly, that's the fly up his nose , re Bush, righ now. Poor Rush, no one is calling him for his advice, from the White House, nor having him over .
When push comes to shove, betcha this report was written by people who are "environmental scientists" hired in the Clinton administration. Either way, the buck stops with Whitman's inability to keep her ranks in file (or files in rank).
"To clarify, Mr. Bush has not withdrawn from Kyoto, nor otherwise rejected it. The State Department's recent denial of a formal request to reject the treaty instead hints that, by expressing disdain while remaining formally a "party" to Kyoto, the administration is instead playing chicken with the Europeans. If true, the Bush administration gambles it can leverage its role under Kyoto's terms to extract a deal more to Mr. Bush's liking, while the Europeans believe they can pressure the United States into ratifying the agreement that to this day, rhetoric notwithstanding, bears our valid signature."
It is his administration that put out the report and they speak for him.
They should speak for him, but apparently this time they did't do so. Otherwise Bush wouldn't have distanced himself from the report in this manner.
If this is a rogue report I expect to see heads roll at the EPA. Of course the CIA, FBI and NSA failed to stop the 9/11 attacks and thus far no one has been fired, jailed, or sentenced for not doing the primary duty of federal government, protecting the citizens from foreign attack.
I'm not ready to compare the failure of the FBI , CIA etc to prevent a terrorist attack on the USA, with an EPA report that fails to accurately represent President Bush's position on Global Warming.
Homes are chosen by random.
It's been a while back since I was in radio, so if it's changed, I'm not aware of it.
Perhaps you should reread the article. Rush states that Bush is advocating a centrist's agenda; NOT LEFT.
It IS Clinton's EPA. He had 8 years to fill it with cronies who stay on when a new president is elected.
Exactly so , the Demoncrats place a larger number of low grade appointees into the different agencies, then ,at the end of the Demoncrat reign, en voila, with a stroke of the Executive pen, the become Senior Exectuive Service civil serpents. This assures them that whatever insanity that the Plan is supposed to wrought, it will happen through bureaucratic inertia. Best of all, Civil Service protection .
Apparenly that's what he WANTS you to think. Somehow, I don't think this administration discusses its strategy with a talk show host.
And if you want to find out who put the Algore stuff out, take a look at Rush's web site; he has a picture on there of Bush morphing into Gore.
I'm asking for accountability. When government officials or agencies fail the public, heads should roll and policies must change, anything less is selling out the populace.
What he said on yesterday's program, and what is on his website, is beyond the pale. The NBC blurb couldn't have helped either. You bet someone called him and gave him what for. Of course, Rush had to spin it, and he still hasn't said that he , not the president was wrong and he won't !
In the old days, Rush would have NEVER taken the N.Y. Times, nor Drudge, for that matter, as gospel. Now, he does and looks like the village idiot.
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