Among the 44 House Democrats voting against the American Clean Energy and Security Act last Friday was Rep. Walt Minnick, the only Democrat in Idaho's four-member congressional delegation. Reading his tortured explanation of why he turned against President Obama and the Democrat majority was like reading rote from the offices of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
Boiled down to the essential, Minnick said the legislation is "bad for business."
For eight years, that's the nonsense Americans heard from the Bush White House about why it refused to acknowledge the urgent need to attack causes of global warming.
Let's get real and honest.
Minnick is voting like a Republican for a simple reason—not out of conviction but because he believes that being a DINO—Democrat In Name Only—will move voters in his right-leaning district to return him to Washington in 2010. Don't bet the farm on that.
The same is true of the other recalcitrant Democrats resisting climate change bills. They're following the conservative script in GOP-heavy districts.
Dealing with climate change is a national emergency. Weak-kneed politicians who have caved in to the industrial-pollution lobby and Republican doctrine that global warming is a "hoax" have put it off too long. Hundreds of credible scientists and thoughtful studies have documented the crisis.
As for Minnick's betrayal of a forward-looking Obama agenda, Idaho can do better by electing real Democrats and not sham politicians who switch colors when convenient.
