Utah Governor Confirmed As EPA Chief

[Sticky]

WASHINGTON - Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt won Senate confirmation Tuesday to become head of the Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) after Senate Democrats sharply critical of the Bush administration backed down in the face of an overwhelming Republican show of force

The lopsided 88-8 vote did not reflect the intense efforts by some Democrats to hold up the nomination as they attacked the Bush administration's environmental decisions

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=512&ncid=716&e=4&u=/ap/20031028/ap_on_go_co/senate_epa

[tom_paine]

1. I'm SICK of Democrats backing down

Although anyone who wonders about "massive displays of force" by the Busheviks should ask Wellstone or Carnahan what that means...

[Feanorcurufinwe]

3. In this case it merely meant they had the 60 votes they needed.

[adriennel]

2. extinct

there is no such creature as a western Republican environmentalist, so expect Leavitt's term to be worse than Whitman's!

[Armstead]

4. From the aboive article:

Minutes before the Senate was to have taken a procedural vote to clear the way for a final vote on Leavitt's confirmation, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (news - web sites), D-N.Y., dropped her opposition to the nomination.


She explained that the White House had told her in a letter that it would take additional steps over two years to protect New York City residents who potentially had been exposed to harmful substances from the World Trade Center rubble.

<snip>

Clinton and three Democratic presidential contenders in the Senate — Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, John Kerry (news - web sites) of Massachusetts and John Edwards of North Carolina — led an effort for weeks to block a vote on Leavitt, to make an issue of Bush administration environmental policies.

Along with Lautenberg, Democrats who voted against Leavitt's confirmation were Sens. Barbara Boxer of California, Jon Corzine of New Jersey, Mark Dayton of Minnesota, Richard Durbin of Illinois, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Charles Schumer of New York.

Four other Democratic senators didn't vote: Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, John Edwards of North Carolina, Joe Lieberman (news - web sites) of Connecticut and John Kerry of Massachusetts.

[mndemocrat_29]

5. Glad to see that my senator, Dayton, voted against this

New Jersey must be proud as well, with BOTH senators voting this way.

[TahitiNut]

6. duplicate and over 12 hours old

See http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=186654

I'm locking this thread. Interested DUers are welcome to continue discussing this in the referenced thread.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation,
TahitiNut - DU moderator