Dangerous liaisons and ankle bracelets
Source: The Oregonian - OregonLive.com (Original Article)
B efore we ask what John McCain would do on wind energy,
maybe it’s time to ask what Barack Obama ever did to
Gov. Ted Kulongoski.
It would have been embarrassingly difficult for McCain to
find a prominent Oregon Republican to introduce him at the
Vestas training facility in Northeast Portland on Monday,
and the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee
didn’t need to.
Kulongoski, a Democrat and a Hillary Clinton fan, was happy
to do the honors, wrapping his figurative arms around McCain
before the Arizona senator delivered a policy speech on
climate change.
Global warming is the rare issue in which Kulongoski has a
little gravitas, so the governor could make the argument
that some policy matters rise above partisanship.
But that is McCain’s mantra, particularly while
campaigning in blue heavens like Oregon. If he returns
during the fall campaign to remind us he regularly crosses
the aisle when conscience demands, McCain will have
Monday’s photo op with Kulongoski to prove it.
Championing Clinton in the primary wasn’t enough for
you, Ted? You’re now looking to stick it to Obama in
the general?
“The governor believes this is an important
issue,” said spokeswoman Anna Richter Taylor.
“We’ve had an administration that’s ignored
it for the last eight years. But this is not about
presidential politics. The governor has been working on this
issue for 51/2 years, trying to grow the renewal energy
industry in Oregon, and Vestas is an important footprint on
that front.”
McCain would agree. Writing in a 1996 New York Times’
piece headlined “Nature is Not a Liberal Plot,”
McCain said the public needs to be convinced “the
Republican environmental agenda will consist of more than
coining new epithets for environmental extremists or
offering banal symbolic gestures.”
Twelve years later, the public is up to speed on the GOP
agenda: The usual conservative mouthpieces now routinely
deride climate bankwest credit card change as a figment of Al …continue reading