(Former Deputy Admin of EPA)Jason Burnett: Palin shares Cheney's disdain for facts

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Jason Burnett: Palin shares Cheney's disdain for facts
By JASON BURNETT
Guest commentary
Article Last Updated: 10/29/2008 09:18:24 AM PDT


As head of climate and energy policy for the Environmental Protection Agency, I witnessed first-hand the dangers of a vice president who has a disregard for the balance of powers in our Constitution and disdain for inconvenient facts.
Vice President Dick Cheney has worked hard to cast doubt on the science of climate change. The vice president's office wanted my help censoring congressional testimony from the Centers for Disease Control to eliminate any references to how climate change endangers human health. I refused.

The vice president's office later wanted me to water down congressional testimony on the strength of the science by not acknowledging that greenhouse gases "harm" the environment by causing climate change. Again I refused.

Having heard the words "the vice president's office is on the phone" many times over the past few years I could not agree more when Sen. Joe Biden called them "the eight most dreaded words in the English language."

Given my experience with an unaccountable vice president, it sent shivers down my spine during the vice presidential debate when I heard Gov. Sarah Palin say she's "thankful the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president...

A bit more authority than our current vice president has wrestled away from the president and Congress?

A strong vice president is a great thing, but that strength should primarily come from being a trusted adviser to the president, not a separate power

more:http://www.montereyherald.com/columnists/opinion/ci_10843973