Way back, when the NYT was writing well-researched, respectable
political coverage - as opposed to vacuous hit pieces culled from
Daily Kos, they came out with this shocking piece about Obama.
What is interesting is how within days after this article appeared,
the NYT began began a smear campaign against Clinton that goes
until this day.
The same way Daily Kos wrote an article supporting Clinton and
Edwards, but not Obama, then overnight converted into an Obama
spam mill.
The way Chris Matthews completely exposed the Swiftboaters one
night, and on the next night began advertising their message.
It makes the mind wonder.
But back to the point. And the link.
If you can't access the link, this is thefirst few paragraphs. And trust
me, the article gets into much more potent slime:
Mr. Obama scolded Exelon and federal regulators for inaction and introduced a bill to require all plant owners to notify state and local authorities immediately of even small leaks. He has boasted of it on the campaign trail, telling a crowd in Iowa in December that it was "the only nuclear legislation that I've passed."
"I just did that last year," he said, to murmurs of approval.
A close look at the path his legislation took tells a very different story. While he initially fought to advance his bill, even holding up a presidential nomination to try to force a hearing on it, Mr. Obama eventually rewrote it to reflect changes sought by Senate Republicans, Exelon and nuclear regulators. The new bill removed language mandating prompt reporting and simply offered guidance to regulators, whom it charged with addressing the issue of unreported leaks.
Those revisions propelled the bill through a crucial committee. But, contrary to Mr. Obama's comments in Iowa, it ultimately died amid parliamentary wrangling in the full Senate.
"Senator Obama's staff was sending us copies of the bill to review, and we could see it weakening with each successive draft," said Joe Cosgrove, a park district director in Will County, Ill., where low-level radioactive runoff had turned up in groundwater. "The teeth were just taken out of it."
The history of the bill shows Mr. Obama navigating a home-state controversy that pitted two important constituencies against each other and tested his skills as a legislative infighter. On one side were neighbors of several nuclear plants upset that low-level radioactive leaks had gone unreported for years; on the other was Exelon, the country's largest nuclear plant operator and one of Mr. Obama's largest sources of campaign money.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/us/pol
itics/03exelon.html?_r=1&hp&oref
=slogin
|
|
|
Permalink :: 69 Comments :: Post a Comment
|
In order to post a comment, you must be logged in. If you have a member account, please log in to comment.
If not, you can make an account right here. It's quick and free.
