In a televised debate yesterday, Senator Inhofe was asked an interesting question. Referring to his worldfamous comment that global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American People, he was asked whether he viewed John McCain as a “victim” of the hoax or a “perpetrator. (You have got to understand that in Oklahoma, Inhofe's luddite views are lauded, so the question could well have been in all seriousness.)
Inhofe, who has had inside access to McCain's views as a coworker in the Senate since 1996, offered this to explain why his colleague works so hard to greenwash his true voting record:
"People are afraid of some of the environmentalists out there because they pour all the money into campaigns and, consequently, we have a lot of people who fall in that category, and some of them are Republicans."
Huh. Apparently even people who have big bucks to spend to try to influence our national policy for the better, just simply do not check voting records or party platforms.
If they did, they would discover that John McCain is not any maverick when it comes to clean energy and the environment. His actual voting record aligns perfectly with Senate Republicans' very consistent history of votes against the environment and renewable energy.
Now, if these Republican environmentalists want a maverick, there actually are three or four Republicans who do vote for renewable energy. These donors could have chosen Maine's locally popular Susan Collins, or the gorgeous Cynthia Snowe (also of Maine) who truly did reach across the aisle with the Kerry/Snowe Cap and Trade, or even Gordon Smith of Oregan, (at least for his recent votes since being practically scared out of his seat in 2002 by unusually well organized environmental legislative activists in Portland.)
These three truly are the Republican environmental mavericks who reliably vote against their party, with the Senate Democrats time after time.
But that raises another question.
When there are only a handful of Senators who support your issue, surely it is time to swap sides? Some environmentalist donors are apparently unclear on the party platforms.
Photo from the Exxon-funded Heritage Foundation
Via Joseph Romm
Mccain's Green Talk Contradicts His Actions
McCains 50 Votes Against Clean Energy
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