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  • This is not what democracy looks like

    I wish everyone would stop calling them “debates.” Even back when the League of Women Voters first televised confrontations between presidential candidates, they weren’t debates. At best they were stiff, unnatural political discussions. Now that the two major political parties run them, they are carefully controlled soundbite gotcha matches. Like most everything about our campaign […]

  • Honorable Mention

    LOS ANGELES, Calif.    With much fanfare and an excess of recyclable confetti, Democrats sent Al Gore forth last night into what will be a grueling three-month campaign stretch. The vice president must convince skeptical voters that he has what it takes to lead and that electing him over Texas Gov. George W. Bush will make […]

  • Monumental Momentum

    The Grand Canyon just got grander. Photo: Council on Environmental Quality. President Clinton has been on a national monument tear of late, setting aside eight areas encompassing more than 1 million acres since January. National monument status gives the federal government increased authority to prevent development and limit logging and other commercial and recreational activity […]

  • Wait a Minute There, Buster

    Aides to Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) got a bit of a shock last Saturday when they logged onto the website of Maria Cantwell, one of Gorton’s Democratic challengers, and saw a goofy photo of their boss posing with “Buster the Salmon,” a costumed protestor who dogs Gorton at campaign events over his refusal to support […]

  • Should campaign finance reform become the next big green issue?

    "Politics," said Will Rogers, "has got so expensive that it takes lots of money to even get beat with." And that was in the 1930s.

  • It's time to renew your enviro vows, Al

    The environment should be a winning electoral issue for Al Gore, so why has he said so little about it — thus far — during his run for president? Day after day, the vice president pounds away on his core themes of health care, education, the booming economy, and now, his sinner’s conversion to campaign […]

  • Greenslinging

    The environment — oh-so-neglected for much of the presidential campaign (as we noted in past columns) — has bubbled up to the top of the issue mix in recent days. While the Republican battle royale between Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Arizona Sen. John McCain still steals most of the ink and gets the […]

  • McCain Is on the Money

    I’ve had the fun of voting in six New Hampshire primaries, but this one I had to sit out. I’ve just moved three miles across the river and become a Vermonter. It was strange to watch all the foofuraw from across the state boundary. I still bumped into the candidates as they cruised the valley, […]

  • On With the No-Show

    Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) may have said it best at a rally Sunday afternoon in the postcard-perfect New Hampshire town of Peterborough. Asked what he planned to do to improve the environment, McCain mused briefly about convening a panel of scientists to figure out once and for all whether global warming exists, and then […]