-Caveat Lector- The Disease of Bipartisanship: Will It Infect The Environment? By Carla Binion Gale Norton, G. W. Bush's Interior Department nominee, does not believe global warming is a problem. She also advocates "takings" legislation. Will the disease of bipartisanship cause afflicted Senators to approve Norton's nomination? Takings proponents such as Norton claim that environmental regulations interfere with private property rights. In "Eyes Right," (edited by Chip Berlet, South End Press, 1995) Tarso Ramos of the Western States Center in Portland, Oregon, reports that Richard Epstein, an originator of the takings movement, openly said his position on takings "invalidates much of the twentieth century legislation." Epstein's invalidated legislation would include the National Labor Relations Act, civil rights legislation and minimum wage laws. Minimum wage laws, says Epstein, are "undoubted partial takings." He also argues against collective bargaining. According to Ramos, President Ronald Reagan embraced Richard Epstein's doctrine and codified it with Executive Order 12630, which said that "[e]xecutive departments and agencies should review their actions carefully to prevent unnecessary takings and should account in decision-making for those takings that are necessitated by statutory mandate." The Reagan Administration's Solicitor General Charles Fried discussed Reagan's Executive Order 12630 in his memoir. Fried wrote: "Attorney General [Edwin] Meese and his young advisors -- many drawn from the ranks of the then fledgling Federalist Societies and often devotees of the extreme libertarian views of Chicago law professor Richard Epstein -- had a specific, aggressive, and, it seemed to me, quite radical project in mind: to use the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment as a severe brake upon federal and state regulation of business and property. The grand plan was to make government pay compensation as for a taking of property every time its regulations impinged too severely on a property right -- limiting the possible uses for a parcel of land or restricting or tying up a business in regulatory red tape. If the government labored under so severe an obligation, there would be, to say the least, much less regulation." Taros Ramos writes that Reagan's Executive Order 12630 "amounted to a presidential order against regulating industry and an attack on public interest law." Many environmental, labor and civil rights organizations see takings as an extremist anti-environmental and anti-labor doctrine. Robert Kennedy, Jr., has denounced Gale Norton for her support of takings. According to Taros Ramos, groups that oppose takings legislation include: the Sierra Club, the National Parks and Conservation Association, the National Audubon Society, Defenders of Wildlife, National Wildlife Federation, the Wilderness Society, Coalition Against Childhood Lead Poisoning, United Food and Commercial Workers Union, United Steelworkers of America, Alliance for Justice, National Urban League, Public Citizen, and the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Department. Environmental researcher William Kevin Burke also contributed to "Eyes Right," (edited by Chip Berlet, 1995.) Burke says the Wise Use agenda includes "removing present environmental protections and preventing future environmental reforms." Wise Use, according to Burke, was a fundraising idea of Ron Arnold and Alan Gottlieb. Arnold once worked for the Sierra Club, but for a few years was also "a registered agent for the American Freedom Coalition, a political offshoot of Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church," says Burke. Alan Gottlieb has served as a fundraiser for a variety of right-wing interests. Ron Arnold also co-authored a flattering biography of former Secretary of the Interior James Watt, Gale Norton's mentor. Watt consistently favored corporate interests over environmental protection with his efforts to open federal lands to logging and mining and his work to eliminate environmental regulation. Today Gale Norton supports George W. Bush's plan to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration. Bush supporters say a president has a right to choose his cabinet. They claim his opponents object only because his nominees are "conservative." Wouldn't a conservative want to conserve, rather than exploit, the natural environment? Some bipartisanship promoters imply Democratic Senators should rubber stamp all Bush nominees without serious challenge. However, conscientious Senators are the only buffer between any potentially harmful Bush appointees and the public's civil liberties and environmental protections. Newsman Dan Rather told David Letterman on his Monday, January 15, program that the Senate is very much a club [no surprise], and that Bush's Ashcroft nomination would surely pass. Any Democratic Senators more concerned with appeasing other Senators than with challenging the status quo on the public's behalf have forgotten they work for their constituents and not for the club. In The Nation, January 22, 2001, John Nichols quotes Democratic Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr.: "Either we break up this congenial, very nice, big-smile lie of bipartisanship or we will see our message corrupted by the suggestion that Democrats and Republicans really aren't all that different," says Jackson. Nichols says the first test for Senate Democrats will be in their handling of the Bush appointments. He adds, however, that most of the Bush choices will not be rejected or even delayed for long. A breath of fresh air in the Beltway's bipartisanship-infested atmosphere is this item reported by Nichols: In the House, key members of the Progressive Caucus, including Independent Bernie Sanders and Democrats Barbara Lee, Cynthia McKinney, John Conyers and others, have planned to develop a political action committee designed to help elect left-leaning candidates. Progressive Caucus chairman, Representative Dennis Kucinich, said, "I think progressives can offer the democratic leadership something that is needed: a real vision for where this country should be headed, not some compromise that leaves everyone disappointed." Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr., says George W. Bush plans his bipartisanship around compromise-prone conservative Democrats. "It is this conservative bipartisan coalition that allows Ralph Nader to say we have one corporate party with two different names," says Jackson. He adds, "If Democrats go down this bipartisan path it will only strengthen Nader and the Greens for 2002 and 2004." With Bush appointees such as Gale Norton, and a Bush agenda so unfriendly to the environment and civil liberties, we need an opposition party to the Republicans. I would like to see the Democrats rise to the occasion. Jackson and certain Progressive Caucus members have their fingers on the electorate's pulse. Conservative, compromise-prone Democrats would be wise to remove their own fingers from their ears and feel that pulse, too. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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