NYT: Election Over, McCain Criticizes Bush on Climate Change

[DeepModem Mom]

Election Over, McCain Criticizes Bush on Climate Change
By ANDREW C. REVKIN

Published: November 16, 2004


Wasting no time distancing himself from President Bush on an issue that has long divided them, Senator John McCain yesterday called the White House stance on climate change "terribly disappointing" and said inaction in the face of mounting scientific data was unjustified.

Two weeks after the end of a campaign in which he stumped for Mr. Bush's re-election, Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona, is convening a Senate hearing today on the human effect on climate and what to do about it.

Mr. Bush, citing the cost to the economy and what the administration describes as the uncertainty of the science, has opposed restrictions on carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases since early 2001, when he abandoned a pledge he made in his first presidential campaign to restrict carbon dioxide from power plants.

In contrast, for three years Mr. McCain has pushed for a bill he wrote with Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, that would create the first, modest curbs on greenhouse gases.

"This is a very time-sensitive issue," he said in an interview yesterday.

Dana M. Perino, a White House spokeswoman, said that Mr. Bush saw climate change as a serious issue but that he favored using voluntary means to slow the growth of greenhouse gas emissions, as "a first step in an aggressive strategy to meet the challenge of long-term global climate change."...


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/16/politics/16mccain.html

[billyoc]

1. If there's any justice in the universe,

the ozone hole will be centered right over McCain's house. :grr:

[Beguine]

2. Ah, McCain...

one might wish your oppostition was perhaps a little less loyal, or at least that your loyalty was not first to your party.

[central scrutinizer]

31. The party always comes first

with Republicans. That is why Karl Rove is setting the agenda. Party first; multinational corporations second; what is best for the country a distant third; what is best for working people, don't make me laugh.

[wryter2000]

40. Welcome to DU

:hi:

[newyawker99]

42. Hi Beguine!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[MrUnderhill]

3. It's a "shot across the bow"

That translates to "you darn well better cough up that cabinet position you bought me off with, or else"

[grumpy old fart]

13. Too Obvious

A Cabinet appointment would just make him look an even more pathetic excuse for a politician than he already has become. Besides, unless * makes him Secretary of War, what real position of "influence" is left?

[petepillow]

4. Thaaaaaat MUTHa FUGGa

Boy he's made no effort to be discreet about his convenient on-again off-again loyalties. I wanna smack that old boy in the mouth.

[Flammable Materials]

5. He's a pathetic and sad human being. Not worth the effort. n/t

[PurityOfEssence]

49. Exactly. He's Clinton Dark: sucking up to power, yet covering his ass

McCain is the worst kind of coward: He wants to be loved as a "nice guy", but he'll curry favor with the party for his own personal advancement even after the administration has fucked him six ways from Sunday. The man has a moral compass of sorts, but he'll betray it with a cheery clear-eyed smile for the approval of the crowd. As such, he's probably worse than someone with no heart at all.

Deee-skusting.

[ProfessorPlum]

6. He's just setting himself up for his nomination in '08

Which was what was clearly promised to him if he played ball this year. Now he can play the part of "rational Republican" for a few years before his coronation.

[redstateblues]

8. The falwell-robertson American taliban will never permit it

Frist is being groomed for the coronation

[grumpy old fart]

9. Cant have it both ways...

He could have prevented the chimp from winning and saved the country from the apocalypse that will be the next 4 years, but he refused to step to the plate. Hell, he not only failed to dissent, he stuck his head up the chimp's ass and said it smelled good....Great resume for a presidential candidate.

[durablend]

7. Flip flop flip flop

Make up your damn mind already McCain.

FOR or AGAINST Bush?

[grumpy old fart]

11. He's for McCain, Period.

I've come to the conclusion that for all his war hero credentials, he just likes to hear himself and won't/can't step to the plate when it counts. He had the ability to swing this most important of elections away from the Chimp, but he couldn't/wouldn't do it. Unless we hear a damn fine mea culpa from him on the election, he ain't got no street cred left with me.

[Carolina]

45. or maybe the Bush

campaign folks here in SC were right about him: too many years in Hanoi fucked up his brain.

Whatever, I don't give a shit. McCain is a jerk. I have thought so ever since he made a nasty remark about Chelsea Clinton (along the lines of White House dog) who was a child at the time!

He does/says shit just to garner attention. Worthless POS.

[gWbush is Mabus]

10. you should have supported Gore you mother fucker!

[muse]

12. Do you think Bush will miss those man hugs over the environment?

I doubt it? It looks to me that McCain chose a rather non-threatening issue to confront Bush on. It's not like he chose to stand up to Bush on Iraq. I'm all for somebody taking up the environmental cause with this administration and I wish him all the luck in the world, but I bet he is swatting at flies.

[grumpy old fart]

14. What influence does a sycophant have?

I mean, who's gonna listen to a guy that upon command, will stick his head up your butt??

[mzmolly]

15. Message to McCain "Go F yourself!"

[yellowcanine]

16. Ozone hole is not about greenhouse gases.....

Though they are often confused, the ozone hole is a separate issue from greenhouse gases and global warming. The ozone hole was believed to have been caused by chlorine in the upper atmosphere (mostly the use of chloroflourocarbons (freon)). Global warming, on the other hand, is likely a result of excess greenhouse gases, mostly carbon dioxide). Confusing the issue is that some ozone destroyers are also greenhouse gases (methyl bromide and chlouoflourocarbons) - but their role in global warming is dwarfed by the effects of carbon dioxide).

[hatrack]

17. Well lah-dee-frickin'-dah!

Ooh! Courageous John McCain, boldly challenging the Resident on an issue that will make him look good and will result in exactly zero - ZERO - shifting of policy within the Headupass Administration.

How brave. :puke:

I hope Lake Powell runs dry.

[phantom power]

22. amen.

President Purge is busily excommunicating every public official who even remotely disagreed with him over the last four years. And rubes like McCain are still pretending that he's going to have some kind of Grinch moment and learn the real meaning of Christmas, after all.

[JudyM]

18. He's not just taking on *, he's taking on the fundies - more power to him!

I agree he's not perfect by any means, but I enthusiastically welcome every government voice we can get to bring this out in front of the public, and pressure * on it. This is so clearly a * cronyism issue with corporations and the saudis, that we need everything we can get, from any camp.

This article is a must-read about *, congress and fundies:

http://cleveland.indymedia.org/news/2004/10/12982.php

Excerpts:

...Many Christian fundamentalists feel that concern for the future of our planet is irrelevant, because it has no future. They believe we are living in the End Time, when the son of God will return, the righteous will enter heaven, and sinners will be condemned to eternal hellfire. They may also believe, along with millions of other Christian fundamentalists, that environmental destruction is not only to be disregarded but actually welcomed -- even hastened -- as a sign of the coming Apocalypse.

... We are not talking about a handful of fringe lawmakers who hold or are beholden to these beliefs. The 231 legislators (all but five of them Republicans) who received an average 80 percent approval rating or higher from the leading religious-right organizations make up more than 40 percent of the U.S. Congress. These politicians include some of the most powerful figures in the U.S. government, as well as key environmental decision makers: Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell, Senate Republican Conference Chair Rick Santorum, Senate Republican Policy Chair Jon Kyl, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, and quite possibly President Bush.

...Like it or not, faith in the Apocalypse is a powerful driving force in modern American politics...

... In the past, it was not deemed politically correct to ask probing questions about a lawmaker's intimate religious beliefs. But when those beliefs play a crucial role in shaping public policy, it becomes necessary for the people to know and understand them. It sounds startling, but the great unasked questions that need to be posed to the 231 U.S. legislators backed by the Christian right, and to President Bush himself, are not the kind of softballs about faith lobbed at the candidates during the recent presidential debates. They are, instead, tough, specific inquiries about the details of that faith: Do you believe we are in the End Time? Are the governmental policies you support based on your faith in the imminent Second Coming of Christ? It's not an exaggeration to say that the fate of our planet depends on our asking these questions, and on our ability to reshape environmental strategy in light of the answers.

[DeepModem Mom]

21. Interesting, JudyM -- he HAS taken on the "religious" Right before --

nt

[Sleepless In NY]

43. If he really wanted to "take on the fundies" he would have

refused to back bush in the 1st place. It was the fundies who went after McCain and his wife during the 2000 primaries, in the 1st place. McCain is nothing but a two faced bastard who will back off of anything if it gets too controversial.

[arwalden]

19. I Have NO RESPECT For McCain... At ALL... PERIOD!!!

Exclamation point.

[PhuLoi]

20. McCain: Bush's bitch. n/t

[Roland99]

23. Too Late for that Whore

I have no respect for John "I'm a political whore" McCain.

[AlCzervik]

24. wow, he's really putting himself out there.....

not.

[Isere]

25. Puh-leeze!

McCain has forfeited any right to our attention! He proved himself to be nothing more than a craven lap-dog to Bush throughout the campaign. Now he wants to reclaim his virginity.

I have written him off entirely and couldn't care less about what he has to say. When the time came to stand up for his principles he was busy shining Bush's boots.

McCain, Powell, Giuliani, Pataki, Snowe, Collins, Chaffee...the whole sorry lot of them can go pound sand!

[BlueStatesForever]

26. The poodle yips

Oh boo, hoo poodle. McCain you were so outraged, you shouldn't have campaigned with the guy. Go to h*ll.

[0007]

27. junior will pat McCain on the ass and McCain will see eye to eye

with junior.


McCain needs love and doesn't care where he goes for it!

[nickfaldo7]

28. F*** McCain

I used to respect McCain and Colin Powell, but they are the biggest sell-outs in history.

[marew]

32. You are sooo right!!

[chaumont58]

29. McCain is doing this to curry favor with the beltway whores

He can go on Tweety's show, and Tweety will just gush over what a brave man McCain is. Eric Alterman will get all moist. This whole thing is like a fart in a wind storm. Much ado about no real consequences.

[xchrom]

30. like bush cares what you think, mccain.

don't you get it?
nobaody cares what you think anymore.

[GOPBasher]

33. So he couldn't say this BEFORE the election?

I've lost a lot of respect for McCain. He puts party above country.

[frank frankly]

34. you're a real TIGER, john mccain. how independent of you.

may your grandchildren serve as cannon fodder for king george, may your finances implode, and may you realize somewhere deep inside that you are a nazi.

and to think i respected you.

go hug king george again.

[donkeyotay]

35. Since I'm at a loss for words to describe the contempt I feel for McCain

I second yours.

McCain is concerned about our grandchildren? May all republicans reap what their loyalty has sown. That pathetic picture of McCain hugging the evildoer in chief says it all.


:puke:

[opihimoimoi]

36. Thats IT! What respect I had for the dude is now out the window.

McCain is a self serving Human and not the alturistic person I thought...Fuck him and his Pub Party of the mega rich.

[tmooses]

37. I wonder what the climate's like up the Shrub's ass?

[hatrack]

38. Plenty of methane, one of the key GHGs, that's for sure

Other than that, I hear the view's fine (if you're a Republican).

[wryter2000]

39. Too little, way too late

Eff you, McCain. I do mean that. Eff you.

[SKKY]

41. From one veteran to another...

John McCain can go screw himself. He sold his soul to Bush, and now he's trying to buy some of it back. Sorry buddy. You had your chance and you blew it.

[3days]

46. TV Funhouse

They did a great TV Funhouse on SNL of Mccain.
What a POS.

http://video.lisarein.com/tvfunhouse/mccain-tvfunhouse.mov

[The Backlash Cometh]

44. Here, I'll say it: "Fuck you McCain!"

The man overlooks the politicizing of the CIA, but gets upset over the environment. Go to the back of the line, schmuck.

[EndElectoral]

47. Uh..McCain, what was Kerry's position on this...I've lost respect for this

guy

[BlueManDude]

48. I get all wet when Johnny Mac does that Maverick thing!!! n/t