In today's Washington Post, two Republican governors, Ahnuld of Ka-lee-fawn-ya and Jodi Rell of Connecticut, blas the Bush Administration on global warming. In their op-ed, "Lead or Step Aside, EPA: States Can't Wait on Global Warming," the two Republican governors write:
It's bad enough that the federal government has yet to take the threat of global warming seriously, but it borders on malfeasance for it to block the efforts of states such as California and Connecticut that are trying to protect the public's health and welfare.
"Malfeasance?" I looked it up, and here's the definition I found:
[UPDATE: Whoops, looks like I missed The Green Miles' excellent diary on this subject below. Check it out.]
...intentionally doing something either legally or morally wrong which one had no right to do. It always involves dishonesty, illegality, or knowingly exceeding authority for improper reasons. Malfeasance is distinguished from "misfeasance," which is committing a wrong or error by mistake, negligence or inadvertence, but not by intentional wrongdoing.
That's right, Ahnuld and Jodi Rell are saying that the Bush Administration has done something bordering on being "legally or morally wrong" by continuing to "stand in our way" of slashing carbon emissions in their states. Why is the Bush Administration doing this? Because they're stupid and utterly incompetent? Well, yeah, they ARE that. But it's actually much worse: these people are radical ideologues who don't believe in science and who actually continue to think - despite ALL evidence to the contrary - that global warming is some sort of "hoax." They also continue to perpetrate the absurd lie that reducing carbon emissions will "ruin the economy." Amazingly, they say this with a straight face as our "Big 3" automakers bleed red ink, despite (because of?) churning out millions of gigantic, carbon-spewing monsters. Whatever, don't let the facts get in the way of the ideology.
Luckily, not all Republicans are crazed ideologues; Ahnuld and Jodi Rell are great examples of sane, sensible, science-based members of the Grand Old Party. And to them, the answer is simple - we need to take dramatic action IMMEDIATELY on global warming. The only thing standing in their way is the obstinacy, idiocy, and intransigence of the Bush Administration, as they fight to ensure that ExxonMobil makes every last billion dollars of their all-time-record profits, and that Big Oil in general keeps funneling huge wads of dough into Republican campaign coffers. Well, Ahnuld and Jodi Rell see things differently. In their view:
California, Connecticut and a host of like-minded states are proving that you can protect the environment and the economy simultaneously.It's high time the federal government becomes our partner or gets out of the way.
The only question is whether the federal government becomes a partner or "gets out of the way" before, or after, January 20, 2009.