Posted on 04/05/2012 2:45:52 PM PDT by SoConPubbie
Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney, whose health-care record as governor of Massachusetts has left him struggling to win the support of conservative voters, now faces another point of vulnerability: his environmental record.
Just days after his 2002 election, Mr. Romney hired Douglas Foy, one of the state's most prominent environmental activists, and put him in charge of supervising four state agencies.
Gov. Mitt Romney and Douglas Foy at a March 2006 event. Mr. Foy had initiated a lawsuit that led to the cleanup of Boston Harbor and had worked to protect fishing grounds and seashores. Once in the Romney administration, he served as the governor's negotiator on a regional climate-change initiative and helped draft regulations to put emissions caps in place for coal-fired power plants.
With Mr. Foy by his side, Mr. Romney joined activists outside an aging, coal-fired plant in 2003 to show his commitment to the emissions caps. "I will not create jobs or hold jobs that kill people, and that plant, that plant kills people," he said.
Mr. Romney, while implementing the emissions caps, ultimately backed away from the regional climate-change agreement in 2005, a decision announced on the same day he said he would not seek re-election as governor, stoking speculation that he would run for president.
Now, Mr. Romney's record on the environment is becoming fodder for rivals in the presidential race who are trying to stoke doubts about his commitment to conservative principles. On Friday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry launched a broadside against his rival's environmental record, saying it showed he would govern like President Barack Obama.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
You don't remember? Back in October, when this article was written, they included Huntsman, Pawlenty, Bachmann, Cain, Santorum, Gingrich and Paul.
(Perry was still on the sidelines, but was being mentioned a lot by the Great Mentioner. Ditto for Paul Ryan and Mitch Daniels.)
In other words, this is a VERY IMPORTANT ARTICLE. If Perry et al. would get back in the race and take this article to heart, for sure they can stop the Romney Express dead in its tracks!
I haven't yet learned how to insert the sarcasm tag. I'm just not that computer literate.
I'd love to see Perry and, especially, Cain get back in the race, even though I've already voted for Gingrich in the OH primary.
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