The Bush administration’s decision to deny California the right to regulate greenhouse gases from vehicles exploded like a grenade here and in California. But it was hiding in plain sight for weeks.
Schwarzenegger says California will sue the federal government, which certainly indicates an open rupture among Republicans. And at least eight other states are joining California in the fight.
I wonder, does Bush have any allies left? Or has he alienated all of them?
My 24-year-old son posits the theory that Bush is behaving like an asshole so that all the other Republicans can look moderate and decent by comparison. It’s an intriguing theory, one that I might accept were it not for the fact that the Bush administration is so incompetent and self-centered that it’s unlikely that anyone in it could figure out so sophisticated a strategy. Even Karl Rove.
Doug Henwood of Left Business Observer summed up Bush perfectly, describing him as a “willfully ignorant provincial.”
I think Bush knows exactly what he’s doing: representing the oil consituency. The Iraq War makes perfect sense in that context, and has been a spectacular win if advancing the interests (and profits) of the oil lobby are the goal. Bush’s position on global warming also caters to big oil and coal, but it’s more obvious and less likely to succeed.
Bush may have lost many of the allies he started with, but he still has the ones he values most.