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American Morning
Bush on Environmental Damage Control
Aired June 04, 2001 - 11:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Getting back to the topic we were talking about before the break: President Bush and his visit to the Everglades National Park today. His environmental policies are among the issues we're going to touch on right now with our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider, who we tracked down in Los Angeles. You can run, but you cannot hide, Bill.
Good morning to you.
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.
KAGAN: This is the second environmental related event we've seen the president at in the last week. Last week, he was in California himself at Sequoia National Park. What is he trying to bring about by coming to the American people from these picturesque settings?
SCHNEIDER: A certain amount of damage control. I think the administration was widely criticized for a couple of controversial statements made about the environment, particularly conservation. Vice President Cheney said on April 30th: "Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound comprehensive energy policy."
A lot of environmentalist were offended by that statement, and President Bush has said many times you cannot conserve your way to energy independence. So, a lot of Americans wonder, are these men committed to the environment? Is that of value in this administration? President Bush is out to prove that it is by talking about a new environmentalism for the 21st century, as he just did in Florida.
KAGAN: He can talk about it, he can look at the pretty sights for today and perhaps tomorrow, but when he goes back to Washington, he is going to be facing a new shape of the U.S. Senate, as the balance of power shifts. The decision by Jim Jeffords becomes official this week as he goes from Republican to independent, thereby shifting the balance of power in the Senate.
SCHNEIDER: That's right, the Senate will change. Jeffords say that he will shift at the close of business tomorrow, which means on Wednesday, we will have a Democratic Senate. The Democrats have to be careful about this because you know, for them, it's very much like it was for President Clinton at the end of the first two years when he lost control of Congress and had to figure out a different way to govern.
Well, Bush and the Republicans really governed mostly from the right for about 123 days, and then suddenly, the Democrats win a big victory and take over the Senate. But where does their mandate come from? There was no election.
The composition of the Senate is exactly the same. The only thing that happened is Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont switched from Republican to independent, and just that one man's decision had given the Democrats the narrowest of all possible majorities, 50-49. They have to be very careful not to overinterpret their mandate, as Newt Gingrich did when he took over Congress after an election.
KAGAN: As long as we have you in Los Angeles, let's get an update on the mayoral race there, which I hear is heating up and getting kind of nasty on the airwaves there.
SCHNEIDER: It's getting very, very nasty. You know, it's strange because both candidates, the city attorney James Hahn and the former assembly speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, are liberal Democrats, and you would think that they'd be very good friends. Well, it was a pretty polite campaign until recently.
It's become a referendum really on the more charismatic and controversial of the two, that is Antonio Villaraigosa. Particularly at issue, there's a letter that Villaraigosa wrote six years ago asking President Clinton to commute the sentence of a convicted drug dealer, Carlos Vignali, and Hahn released a couple of weeks ago a sensational ad calling into question Villaraigosa's judgment, making a point about his commitment to public safety where Hahn has a very strong record, and some say, because it features a lot of cocaine and crack paraphernalia, raising very subtle questions about ethnicity.
Villaraigosa would be the first Hispanic mayor of Los Angeles in over 100 years. They're a growing constituency, but the question is is the year, is tomorrow the day that they're going to win the mayoralty.
KAGAN: All right, we will watch for it, as you will as well. Thanks so much. Bill Schneider from Los Angeles.
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