Rs Weigh In On the Waiver

Issue #242
February 1, 2008
Rs Weigh In On the Waiver
Josh Dorner

They say it's lonely at the top. It got a whole lot lonelier this week for George W. Bush.

With the Guvernator himself parked squarely in the front row during Wednesday's Republican debate at the Reagan Library, each of the four Republican presidential contenders still left standing -- Romney, McCain, Huckabee, and Paul -- backed California in its battle royale with the Bush administration over the waiver issue. Whether or not the candidates were motivated by the "physical danger" of defying Ahnold -- as McCain suggested to some laughter -- it's clear that each had no problem hanging the Bush administration out to dry on this one.

After all, there's a perfectly Republican principle -- federalism -- that, quite apart from any environmental considerations, argues for allowing states to move forward with their own initiatives, environmental or otherwise. Not that the Bush administration really seems bound by any set of principles, Republican or otherwise.

The Democratic candidates have long advocated overturning the Bush administration's unlawful decision -- both reiterating their strong desire to do so in a virtual town hall with Sierra Club members earlier this week. After last week's fireworks-filled skewering of EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson in the Senate, both Hillary and Obama upped the ante by signing on to Senator Boxer's bi-partisan bill that seeks to overturn the administration's ridiculous waiver decision.

In a late breaking update, Romney’s campaign appears to have "clarified" that he is not for separate state standards when it comes to global warming emissions, just normal emissions. The Detroit Free Press lays out how Romney had been for the standards when was Governor of Massachusetts before he was against them while running in the Michigan Primary before he was for them again in Wednesday’s debate before he was once again against them after the debate.

I guess when a maverick, a conservative, an evangelical, a libertarian, and all of the Democrats line up against you, that leaves, um, Dick Cheney?