Okay, so according to Juliet Elperin, the Wa-Po's top-notch enviro reporter, the Prez is considering designating a vast area of the Pacific, stretching more than 2,000 miles across the Marianas, for "no-take" protection as a "marine monument."
Interestingly, Laura Bush likes the idea, and has even requested briefings on the matter from scientists, but — predictably — Dick Cheney hates the idea. In an editorial, the Los Angeles Times argues:
protections, because it's the right thing to do — enhancing
biodiversity and helping to ward off the threats of overfishing and
pollution to our oceans. But if that's not enough to convince him, he
should consider that he doesn't have to sleep next to Cheney for the
rest of his life.
Ah, editorial boards. By their profession, they must pretend to believe that the powers that be want to do the right thing. But we've heard this tune before, and we know how it'll probably end.
In Angler, Barton Gellman recounts how Cheney scuttled Christie Whitman's efforts as head of the EPA early in Bush's first term to reduce CO2 emissions. Even though Bush had specifically promised in a major speech on the campaign trail in 2000 to regulate CO2, and even though Whitman had confirmed that promise with the White House before repeating it to a conference in Italy, she returned to D.C. to find that Cheney had somehow walked Bush back from his own pledge.
That's our Prez: a man who hates to think for himself. Here's Toles on his exit…
Kit Stolz 