oracle
10-21-2002, 01:21 PM
Good article about Daschle's performance -
Senator Daschle (D., EU) (http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-horner102102.asp)
<font size=1>Dakotan angry that U.S. decides its own positions.
By Christopher C. Horner</font>
We all now know better than to pronounce monumental political ramifications from this event or that stumble. Still, it is difficult to imagine even a sympathetic media ignoring this week's performance by Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's on Fox News Sunday, particularly should he, in fact, pursue the presidency he is rumored to covet.
Facing the ever-gracious Tony Snow, it is no overstatement that Daschle seemed to abdicate any meaningful concept of U.S. self-determination or sovereignty, largely in the futile name of making others more approving of us. Worse, he radically spun reality to cast the U.S. as "bad guy" in international matters where it is in fact our competitors who bully and dissemble.
Liberals tend to parrot disapproval from our European trade competitors — excuse me, allies — as evidence of their moral superiority. Their bane, of course, encompasses most actions in America's interest. What many Americans seem to have forgotten is that Europeans have their own agenda for us and love American politicians who are willing to help, through the International Criminal Court, energy-rationing Kyoto Protocol, etc. Count Tom Daschle among each of these ranks.
First, consider the following exchange, that in a rational world would make even Daschle blush:
...
Not that there's any acceptable circumstance to abdicate sovereign decision-making. Still, consider Kyoto: No U.S. administration has developed or pushed an alternative to Kyoto (nor, incidentally, has Tom Daschle); no U.S administration ever demanded any other country adopt our position. A reality check reminds us, however, that while the courts were sorting out the 2000 U.S. elections, Kyoto negotiations took an ugly turn in The Hague. EU negotiators, sensing that Clinton-Gore negotiators were desperate to lock in a deal, sought to redefine set terms. Specifically, they demanded near elimination of the means by which the U.S. intended to keep its cost of Kyoto below four percent of Gross Domestic Product (according to Clinton's Department of Energy).
Forgive the banality of specifics, but the EU demanded the near elimination of the use of greenhouse-gas "sinks," land-use practices removing GHGs from the atmosphere. Kyoto Article 3 plainly states that sinks "shall be used to meet the commitments under this article." Kyoto compliance, in particular for the U.S., means massive reliance upon sinks, or even more massive energy-tax increases. Always ready to saddle our economy with their burdens, the EU insisted upon near total removal of this mechanism. Thus initiated the U.S.-Kyoto stalemate. The administration that rejected this blackmail was Clinton-Gore.
...
In sum, leadership means doing what others want us to do. It means making it more comfortable for Tom Daschle to hang out with fashionable Europeans. It means the U.S. not deciding "on a unilateral basis what the U.S. position is going to be." Tom, you could not have done the public a better service, in the debates over Iraq, Kyoto, or who deserves to be a "leader."
Click here to read more (http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-horner102102.asp)
Senator Daschle (D., EU) (http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-horner102102.asp)
<font size=1>Dakotan angry that U.S. decides its own positions.
By Christopher C. Horner</font>
We all now know better than to pronounce monumental political ramifications from this event or that stumble. Still, it is difficult to imagine even a sympathetic media ignoring this week's performance by Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's on Fox News Sunday, particularly should he, in fact, pursue the presidency he is rumored to covet.
Facing the ever-gracious Tony Snow, it is no overstatement that Daschle seemed to abdicate any meaningful concept of U.S. self-determination or sovereignty, largely in the futile name of making others more approving of us. Worse, he radically spun reality to cast the U.S. as "bad guy" in international matters where it is in fact our competitors who bully and dissemble.
Liberals tend to parrot disapproval from our European trade competitors — excuse me, allies — as evidence of their moral superiority. Their bane, of course, encompasses most actions in America's interest. What many Americans seem to have forgotten is that Europeans have their own agenda for us and love American politicians who are willing to help, through the International Criminal Court, energy-rationing Kyoto Protocol, etc. Count Tom Daschle among each of these ranks.
First, consider the following exchange, that in a rational world would make even Daschle blush:
...
Not that there's any acceptable circumstance to abdicate sovereign decision-making. Still, consider Kyoto: No U.S. administration has developed or pushed an alternative to Kyoto (nor, incidentally, has Tom Daschle); no U.S administration ever demanded any other country adopt our position. A reality check reminds us, however, that while the courts were sorting out the 2000 U.S. elections, Kyoto negotiations took an ugly turn in The Hague. EU negotiators, sensing that Clinton-Gore negotiators were desperate to lock in a deal, sought to redefine set terms. Specifically, they demanded near elimination of the means by which the U.S. intended to keep its cost of Kyoto below four percent of Gross Domestic Product (according to Clinton's Department of Energy).
Forgive the banality of specifics, but the EU demanded the near elimination of the use of greenhouse-gas "sinks," land-use practices removing GHGs from the atmosphere. Kyoto Article 3 plainly states that sinks "shall be used to meet the commitments under this article." Kyoto compliance, in particular for the U.S., means massive reliance upon sinks, or even more massive energy-tax increases. Always ready to saddle our economy with their burdens, the EU insisted upon near total removal of this mechanism. Thus initiated the U.S.-Kyoto stalemate. The administration that rejected this blackmail was Clinton-Gore.
...
In sum, leadership means doing what others want us to do. It means making it more comfortable for Tom Daschle to hang out with fashionable Europeans. It means the U.S. not deciding "on a unilateral basis what the U.S. position is going to be." Tom, you could not have done the public a better service, in the debates over Iraq, Kyoto, or who deserves to be a "leader."
Click here to read more (http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-horner102102.asp)