Charlie Bass Op-Ed in Boston Globe

Hey Charlie -- You're No Teddy Roosevelt! (4.00 / 3)

Why has the Republican Party let the Democrats cast us as the party of big oil, gas, and coal? Wasn't it a Republican president who broke up the huge oil trusts in America? Wasn't it a Republican president who first called for energy independence through the development of alternative energy resources?

Wasn't it a New Hampshire Republican Congressman who referred to the Sierra Club as "an extremist organization" on WMUR in October 2002?  And who voted to gut EPA enforcement funding?  And who voted to raise allowable arsenic limits in water?  

I could go on and on. . . . Charlie, have some cheese with that whine.

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by: Dartmouth Dem @ Tue Jun 23, 2009 at 07:31:55 AM CDT

Wasn't it a bunch of GOP Congressman that spent.. (4.00 / 4)

... last summer chanting "Drill here, drill now" in the empty halls of Congress?  And didn't their VP candidate sex it up a bit with "Drill, baby, drill"? Maybe that's why voters connect the GOP with oil companies.

I am also pretty sure it was the chairman of the GOP party in NH that was the keynote speaker at the  anti-Climate Change conference a few months ago. And the last president refused to sign the Kyoto Treaty and chose an oil exec to be his VP. So maybe that's also part of the reason why voters connect the GOP with Big Oil.

Charlie ought to realize that recalling the GOP's Teddy Roosevelt roots is not going to be very effective. There aren't many voters who remember what the party stood for in 1908, and those that do know the GOP is a pretty different party than it was in TR's day, and in the end he broke with the party.

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by: Michael Marsh @ Tue Jun 23, 2009 at 08:17:28 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Why? (4.00 / 1)

Because that Republican president was in office a hundred years ago!

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by: FrankLloydMike @ Wed Jun 24, 2009 at 09:11:06 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Not your great great grandfather's Republican Party. (4.00 / 1)

--
"Act as if ye have faith and faith shall be given to you." -Aaron Sorkin

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by: Douglas E. Lindner @ Wed Jun 24, 2009 at 18:59:47 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

No Lincoln? (4.00 / 1)

Maybe he figured it was implied.

What have you done for me lately, Charlie?

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by: JimC @ Tue Jun 23, 2009 at 08:56:15 AM CDT

Here's why, Charlie: (4.00 / 4)

That was THEN.

This is NOW.

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by: elwood @ Tue Jun 23, 2009 at 17:59:23 PM CDT

Charlie Chameleon (4.00 / 3)

As long as I've known Charlie Bass, and that's a long time,
he's been just smart enough to know which way the wind is blowing.
When being seen as moderate served him, that's what he was.
Then when being a neo-con was all the vogue, well, there was Charlie again!
Now as the future for the current GOP looks like it is past,
why there's Charlie with a yet another new color.
Good old Charlie!

No'm Sayn?

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by: BurtCohen @ Tue Jun 23, 2009 at 20:36:37 PM CDT

He may ride forever (4.00 / 5)

Charlie boarded the Republican right wing train when he signed the Contract for America, enthusiastically supporting Newt Gingrich. He can't get off it now - no, he'll never return, he'll neve return, and his fate is too well known. He will ride forever, with  John Sununu, he's the man who'll never return.    

"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    

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by: Kathy Sullivan 2 @ Tue Jun 23, 2009 at 20:44:51 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Well said, Burt n/t (4.00 / 1)

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by: Dartmouth Dem @ Tue Jun 23, 2009 at 21:08:17 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

More on Charlie Bass's Environmental Record (4.00 / 4)

Why has the Republican Party let the Democrats cast us as the party of big oil, gas, and coal? Wasn't it a Republican president who broke up the huge oil trusts in America? Wasn't it a Republican president who first called for energy independence through the development of alternative energy resources?

I'm sorry, but I can't resist, in addition to referring to the Sierra Club as "extremist", voting to gut EPA enforcement, and backing efforts to raise allowable arsenic limits in water, here are some other highlights from Charlie's years in the in the House:

* Bass voted for a moratorium on adding additional threatened or endangered species to the protected list.   (H.R. 1977, CQ#5, January 4, 1996)

* Bass voted to gut wetland protections, supporting a measure that would have resulted in additional development in these environmentally sensitive areas.  (H.R. 2605, CQ#341, 7/27/99)

* Bass was named to Clean Water Action's "Filthy Fifty" list for his efforts to weaken the Clean Water Act.  (Clean Water Action press release, 10/17/96)

* Bass sought to eliminate the Department of Energy.  Said Charlie:  "It's time to pull the plug on DOE.  The gas lines are gone.  So is the need for the Department of Energy." (Bass press release, 6/8/95)

And as for the "huge oil trusts" that Charlie slammed in the Globe. . . from 1994-2002, only one other Member of Congress from New England receive more campaign contributions from oil companies than Charlie Bass.  And he sure did there bidding!

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by: Dartmouth Dem @ Tue Jun 23, 2009 at 21:20:29 PM CDT

Oops (4.00 / 1)

Messed up my money line:  

And he sure did their bidding!

My apologies.

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by: Dartmouth Dem @ Tue Jun 23, 2009 at 22:02:26 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I agree with Charlie Bass (4.00 / 1)

In that New Yorkers are good at picking Presidents.

--
"Act as if ye have faith and faith shall be given to you." -Aaron Sorkin

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by: Douglas E. Lindner @ Wed Jun 24, 2009 at 04:16:41 AM CDT