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)