President shows his softer green side
WASHINGTON -- It is a classic means of redemption for the spurned. Sojourn in the wilderness for a suitable length of time, have a revelation of some sort -- "Man, this wilderness is sure full of trees" -- and emerge with a planet-saving campaign: "We've got to save those trees."
It worked for Al Gore. He was driven into the political wilderness under bitter circumstances, discovered greenhouse gases and emerged with "An Inconvenient Truth," a planet-saving flick that won an Oscar.
He is no longer a stiff. Instead, he has become a sage, visionary, cause for buyers' remorse and a plausible possibility for his party's 2008 presidential nomination. Surely, this has not gone unnoticed by President Bush.
These are not the best of times for the president. The war is stalemated, his administration is floundering and his aides and attorney general embattled. His Republican allies in Congress have largely deserted him, his approval ratings are in the tank and at the worst possible time his most effective spokesman, Tony Snow, winds up on the disabled list. No, these are not good times.
That's why it was with considerable suspicion we noticed his recent infatuation with cars that run on "alternative fuels," i.e., ethanol made from corn, wood chips, switch grass, saw grass, whatever.
Frankly, this president never struck us as a switch grass kind of guy. It puts you too much in mind of those wackos who show up on TV every time there's a spike in energy prices to boast about all the free methane gas they get from the droppings of the 24 goats living in the basement of their suburban rancher.
New-found interest
But hardly a day goes by that Bush is not visiting an ethanol plant or alternative energy research lab. And there he was the other day in the driveway of the White House with the CEOs of the Big Three, inspecting hyphen-powered cars: hydrogen-electric (Ford), bio-diesel (Chrysler) and flex-fuel GM.
Bush is also clearly not a Car Guy. If he were, as a lame duck he would have GM send over some unmuffled Corvettes, have the Secret Service clear the surrounding streets and then he, Josh, Karl, Dan, Dana and the staff would hold 10-lap heat races around the White House.
If a few Corvettes get demolished, GM isn't going to complain, not with the phrase "stricter fuel-economy standards" hanging in the air. It would just quietly send the wreckers.
Bush going green
Something bigger is at work: George Bush is going Green. A Nixon to China, Reagan-seeking accord with the Soviet Union sort of thing. Simple, dramatic and, done right, effective at taking the public's mind off his troubles.
The president has his own image advisers to help accomplish this but he might want to check out a recent New York Times Home & amp; Garden feature on a Manhattan couple who has decided to spend a year without leaving a carbon footprint, "No Impact," they call it.
That means no carbon-fueled transportation (including the elevator to their 9th floor apartment); no books, magazines or paper; no TV and only minimal fluorescent lighting; only locally grown organic food; no new clothes, only used; and no trash other than stuff the worms can turn into compost. (The guy has a book contract out of it, that's why.)
If Bush wants to change the subject quickly, he could declare the White House ... a No Impact zone. He could make the announcement by candlelight, wearing a three-day growth of beard and a frayed shirt, a bowl of organic parsnips at his elbow.
The "no paper" injunction, by the way, includes toilet paper. If the president wants the public to forget all about Attorney General Gonzales, banning toilet paper would be the way to go.
Scripps Howard News Service