Tuesday, April 04, 2006

My first reaction was replaced with...

I was reading the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Openers, You can be pro-environment and a Republican

I do know this, I realize all Republicans are not gunning to drill every last bit of land they think oil can be found on. I was surprised at how poorly most of Ohio's Republicans did on the Republicans for Environmental Protection Scorecard.

Mike Dewine scored the highest with a 47, which means after reviewing their score standards he voted on 7 out of 15 bills (12 bills for House members) that this group used to come up with a score. George Voinovich, John Boehner, Bob Ney, Mike Oxley and Jean Schmidt scored 0. Steve Chabot got 21; Steve LaTourette, 17, and Paul Gillmor, Dave Hobson, Deborah Pryce, Ralph Regula, Pat Tiberi and Mike Turner each got 8.

Being curious I wondered more about this group, then I started reading one of the speeches by Martha Marks who is the President of this organization.

Here's what got my attention, and those of you who have visited my blog will immediately know why:

The one comment I always hear, no matter where I go, is that the very notion of Republicans for Environmental Protection is an oxymoron. People often say that as if they think they’re the first ones who ever thought of it. I’ve gotten pretty good at making a joke out of that oxymoron crack. I like to chuckle publicly about being president of the world’s funniest oxymoron. It gives me a reliably humorous and self-deprecating way to begin my speeches.

I plead guilty to doing initially what has been done to me when I named this blog "Liberal Common Sense". So Republicans for Environmental Protection, I salute you and your effort to go beyond what Publisher Weekly stated, people who vote for Bush but shop at Whole Foods.

We do all share the same earth and the environment should be a bi-partisan affair.

Oh, and if you are curious to know how Sherrod Brown would have done using the same votes used to determine the Republicans for Environment Scorecard? I looked up his voting record. He would have scored 100.

:-)

(This post is for the 17th Carnival of Ohio Politics brought to you by Paul Miller of Northwest Ohio Net, make sure to stop by tomorrow morning and see what some of Ohio's best bloggers are writing about)

10 comments:

Scott G said...

Theodore Roosevelt was a Republican who cared about the environment. He would not get a nomination as a Republican today, but he was the original environmentalist president

Unknown said...

Yes he was and I agree he probably wouldn't get a nomination as a Republican today.

I think about that sometimes, wondering if we could bring back some of the Presidents from the past which party would they be today.

Scott G said...

I think T Roosevelt would be an Independent. Most of the Democrats would have lined up the same I believe. I don't see many switches other than TR since his presidency though

Unknown said...

I'm not sure about Lincoln.

Scott G said...

Lincoln is a tough one. He was a little more progressive than most at the time, but he was also not afraid to suspend Constitutional rights

Unknown said...

That's why I said I wasn't sure about Lincoln, he might have been an Independent, possibly even a Democrat.

Mark said...

I'm a conservative, but I care about the environment. It doesn't seem like an oxymoron to me. Then again, I don't buy the whole "Republicans are all owned by big business" mentality either, so...

liberal_dem said...

...but he [Lincoln] was also not afraid to suspend Constitutional rights

...because our nation was involved in its own civil war at the time.

Our 'suspension of civil rights' by Bush is his junior league imitation of Lincoln, much like all of Bush's bravado and bluster.

Of TR, I'm afraid that he would weep over the condition of 'his' party were he to be incarnated today.

Scott G said...

I weep over the state of his party and I am not a Republican. Reagan probably cries a little too

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