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Desperately seeking a legacy
President Clinton has little time left to improve his standing in history. Could foreign affairs, especially a negotiated peace in the Middle East, offer him a chance for salvation?
By Nina Donaghy
[11/24/99]

Gingrich vs. Gingrich
Why has the former speaker of the House chosen to let his dirty linen be brought out for all to see?
By David Corn
[11/24/99]

Is she or isn't she?
Hillary Clinton announces her run for the Senate from New York. Or doesn't ...
By Sean Elder
[11/23/99]

How the Internet could save John McCain
The man trailing Bush lays out a subversive strategy for catching up.
By Anthony York
[11/23/99]

When victims become killers
Clinton urges Kosovars to forgo revenge against Serbs.
By Laura Rozen
[11/23/99]

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For instance, early last month, he attended the dedication of a new 3,200-acre state wildlife management area on the Gulf Coast, 50 miles south of Houston, a city that has just earned the notorious distinction of having the dirtiest air in America. During the dedication, Bush posed for TV cameras and talked about "balancing the benefits of wildlife and the environment with a common-sense realization" that development is going to happen.

Two weeks later, just one day after a coalition of environmental groups bashed him for Texas' air-quality problems, Bush appeared in Dallas to laud the conversion of a formerly contaminated industrial site into a mission for homeless people. "All of our prosperity means nothing if we leave future generations with land that is contaminated," Bush told the reporters in attendance, offering a mild revision of his standard campaign stump speech, preaching conservatism with a smile.

Unfortunately for Bush, the two photo ops won't change his legacy. During his tenure, air quality in the state's metropolitan areas has deteriorated, and during the last legislative session, Bush invited industry lobbyists to write environmental cleanup legislation, a move that outraged state environmentalists who say the legislation is riddled with loopholes.

Bush's environmental record certainly offers a contrast to the record and rhetoric of his father. During his 1988 campaign for the presidency, George Bush taunted his opponent, Michael Dukakis, for ignoring environmental problems in his home state of Massachusetts. The elder Bush rented a boat and took reporters for a ride in Boston Harbor, where he ridiculed Dukakis for the pollution problems in the harbor. With a flotilla of reporters at hand, Bush assailed the Massachusetts governor, saying that while "Dukakis delayed, the harbor got dirtier and dirtier."

To drive home the point, the elder Bush later declared, "I am an environmentalist; always have been and always will be." He also said his administration would "enforce environmental laws aggressively, putting the responsibility for cleanup where it belongs -- on those who caused the problem in the first place."

By allowing industry to write its own regulations in Texas and escape federal mandates, George W. has contradicted positions taken by his father, who campaigned in 1988 as the environmental president. When the elder Bush signed the amendments to the Clean Air Act in 1990, a measure that set deadlines for outdated facilities to clean up their operations, he said, "Polluters must pay. Once deadlines go by, once they pass, the penalties are severe. American heritage is precious. We will not turn our backs or look the other way," he told a gathering in the East Wing of the White House on Nov. 15, 1990. "There is a new breeze blowing, a new current of concern for the environment."

The younger Bush said recently that the environment "should be a major issue" in the presidential race. "I think the environment is incredibly important for the 21st century for America," he said. That may be the case. But so far, Bush can't claim any major achievements that prove he believes that to be true.

During his time in Austin, Bush backed a law that gives immunity -- and a pledge of secrecy -- to industrial polluters if they voluntarily inform state regulators that they have violated Texas' pollution laws. And finally, while his fellow Republican governors are backing dramatic increases in spending on parks and recreation facilities, Bush has opposed new park acquisition at a time when the state's park system is woefully underfunded and overcrowded.

Bush's lack of attention to the environment was underscored on Oct. 7, when Houston surpassed Los Angeles as the city with the worst air quality in America. That day, Houston had the highest ozone level reading in the nation this year: 251 parts per billion. It was the highest reading in the Houston area in 10 years, and more than double the permissible maximum of 125 ppb.

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