This Just In: Whitman Ineffective, Grass Still Green

The Nation's David Corn has a column on Mother Jones' website lamenting the lack of influence EPA Administrator Christie Whitman seems to have in the White House. The Administration says she has broad authority to address environmental issues, but she's constantly being undermined by Bush's domestic policy team. Well, yeah. Does this surprise anyone? If it were up to Bush and Cheney there probably wouldn't even be an EPA. They think energy, for example, should be cheap and plentiful rather than tightly regulated and assiduously conserved. People in the White House don't really agree with a lot of what the EPA does, so why should anyone be shocked when they cut the Agency's enforcement budget or contradict Whitman's public statements? Yes, it's probably no fun being EPA chief in a conservative administration. But it's also no fun being a taxpayer in a Liberal one.