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I was wondering when the “Bush Caused the Wildfires” mantra would start. I just didn’t think it would start in my Granite State of New Hampshire and that it would come out of the mouth of former New Hampshire Governor and current Democratic Senate candidate Jeanne Shaheen, who is normally very disciplined and not prone to saying silly things.Speaking to an audience of committee members and elected officials, Shaheen and Buckey discussed their qualifications for the Senate and their stance on global warming, the economy, and the health care system.
Buckey said he would focus on decreasing America’s dependence on petroleum and increasing research on renewable energy technologies. He said it’s an issue that’s vital to both national security and the economy.
“If we don’t take action, we are going to lose control of America’s future,” Buckey said. “Ten years from now, do we want to be importing solar-powered systems and other technologies from elsewhere or do we want to be building them here?”
Shaheen agreed with many of Buckey’s points, but criticized the Bush administration on everything from the war in Iraq to health care. Shaheen also blamed Bush for the wildfires in California.
“Those wildfires are the direct result of the failure of this administration to do something about global warming,” she said.
This is a pretty remarkable and irresponsible statement on Shaheen’s part, for as even the MSM has acknowledged by now: “Authorities in Southern California said they believe two of the fires that recently ravaged the area were intentionally started.”
As readers no doubt know, Shaheen is running against Sen. John Sununu, whom you can contribute to through the Rightroots contribution interface HERE.
UPDATE: More than a few readers have e-mailed to say that Gov. Shaheen’s gaffe is the consequence of a major party going loopy–otherwise smart, rational people start saying loopy things just to win their approval. Sigh. I suppose so.
This, of course, follows a similar pattern demonstrated by none other than Bill Clinton. Remember when he blamed "right wing talk radio" (Rush Limbaugh- Clinton’s number one detractor) for the OKC bombing? Long a New Hampshire version of the "triangulator" Bill Clinton, it is no surprise that Ms. Shaheen would choose this path of thoughtless demagoguery as she seeks to curry favor with the left wing loons of her party.
Those following the career of Jeanne Shaheen know that this wouldn’t be the first time Ms. Shaheen said or did something loopy in the process of seeking approval. Let’s review one incident in particular…
As we experience near drought conditions this summer here in NH, it is refreshing to recall Gov. Shaheen’s famous canoe trip with Al Gore- you remember that, don’t you? Billions of gallons of North Country water was released to safely accommodate Shaheen and Gore for a photo-op. Hopefully this river excursion will be remembered often, should she decide to run for the Senate. Perhaps some intrepid reporter, recalling her and Al’s voyage, will ask the Gov.’s opinion of the denial of water to Klamath Falls farmers due to the Endangered Species Act’s protection of the Suckerfish. …
My neighbour, Adair, is director of the Connecticut River Joint Commission and, when Mr Gore and New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen, decided to stage a canoeing photo-op on the river, Adair and her pals at the CRJC mulled it over and thought they’d do their guests a favour. The water looked a little low – much of America is undergoing a severe drought at the moment – so they asked the electric company to open the floodgates of the Wilder dam, to make sure Al’s canoe didn’t run aground. As usual, the photo-op lasted just long enough for the press to get their photos, at which point Al stopped pretending to be a canoeist and got out of the river. It then emerged that 4 billion gallons of water had been released in order to ensure that Mr Environmentalist could float his boat. Vermont’s natural resources director, a Democrat, grumbled, `They won’t release water for the fish when we ask them to, but somehow they find themselves able to release it for a politician.’.The Gore office then did their usual trick of keeping the story alive by quibbling. It wasn’t 4 billion gallons, or 180,000 gallons per second, they said. It was ‘only’ 97 million gallons, or ‘just’ 27,000 per second. The electric company, whose statements have been almost as unreliable as Mr Gore’s, countered with their own figure: half a billion gallons. While the VicePresident, his obliging dam owners and the press were arguing about precisely how much water he’d wasted, Bill Clinton declared drought emergencies in five midAtlantic states..Most other politicians could have got away with it, but Mr Gore is not a man who can afford to blow even a mere 97 million gallons. He’s been the most enthusiastic proponent, for example, of Federal toilet regulations, which restrict the amount of water you can use to flush and which has led to a roaring trade in toilet smuggling from Canada. Big Brother is watching your big cistern because on the environment, we were told, the Vice-President knew best. It wasn’t long before the American press were producing statistics, in this parched summer, showing that an average homeowner would have to water his lawn 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for 75 years to use as much water as Mr Gore did on the Connecticut. It would certainly seem to be at odds with his book Earth in the Balance in which he quotes approvingly the 12th-century Sri Lankan king, Parakrama Bahu: `Let not a single drop of water that falls on the land go into the sea without serving the people.’.Unlike Mr Gore’s earlier stumbles claiming to be a dirt-poor Tennessee farmer and inventor of the Internet -‘Floodgate’ (as it’s known) would also seem to be illegal: `It would have cost New Englanders up to $7 million to use the same amount of water that was used to float Vice-President Gore’s boat,’ said Steve Duprey, chairman of New Hampshire’s Republican party, announcing that he was asking the Federal Elections Commission to investigate this `illegal campaign contribution’.
