Correspondence
Correspondence NO TO NOVAK THE MOST REMARKABLE ASPECT of Robert Novak's article on campaign finance reform was its many gross factual errors in regard to the current law, the debate's history,...
...The EPA does indeed have a record of politicizing decisions that should be based on scientific data...
...Conversely, Charles Hagedorn, Virginia Tech professor of crop and soil sciences, says: "I can't give you an example of where there are health problems...
...Science has looked...
...After reading Carlson's ridicule of Keyes's successful grass-roots campaign, I wonder why he is loath to accept the support this presidential candidate is garnering—at the grassroots level...
...No small irony there...
...So we should turn around and ban soft money, which is the only recourse for political parties starved for hard money...
...The EPA tested this substance for 10 years, tracking 14 different pathogens in the soil and air before correctly approving its use as a fertilizer...
...It's incorrect to assume Lewis is right simply because he's an EPA whistle-blower...
...The McCain-Feingold show began in 1995 when the duo introduced, virtually verbatim, the Boren-Mitchell scheme (the two Democrats had retired) that Republicans had fought so hard against in the 1980s and early '90s...
...Not true...
...Cohen's article cites a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) investigation in Boulder County, Ohio, that looked into the "severe illnesses coal miners are suffering after exposure to sludge applied for mine reclamation...
...They simply aren't there...
...SEN...
...Certainly I agree that Keyes is an incredible orator...
...My colleague at the Hudson Institute's Center for Global Food Issues, Richard Halpern, is familiar with the CDC report...
...He notes that the coal miners were in fact sludge applicators...
...4) after nearly a month of floor debate and three more cloture votes, in 1993 the Senate passed the Democrats' bill again, the House followed soon after, and it took another Republican around-the-clock filibuster—barely six weeks before the great Republican victories of the 1994 elec-tion—to kill it...
...Novak should be thrilled to discover that Republicans have waged this battle for over a decade through bills and amendments ranging from outright repeal of postal subsidies and candidate and convention funding, to shifting the funds to child nutrition programs and changing the tax check-off to an "add-on" so it comes from the filer's refund instead of diverting the money from the Treasury...
...I don't dispute that Keyes puts his competitors to shame whenever they share a stage...
...Their severe illnesses were, to be more precise, occasional diarrhea and abdominal cramps...
...I've been paying attention to the media's uneven handling of the Republican primary race with great dismay, and have become quite fatigued at how even your magazine has decided to ignore what's happening "below the noise level" the elite media have preordained as "relevant" political activity...
...3) in 1992, Senate Republicans sustained President George Bush's veto of the Democrats' taxpayer-funded spending limits scheme pushed by Senate majority leader George Mitchell and speaker of the House Tom Foley...
...Some facts: (1) a Democrat-controlled Congress in 1971 passed the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) and the 1974, 1976, and 1979 FECA amendments that are the bulk of the laws we live under to this day...
...DAVEJUDAY Center for Global Food Issues Berryville, VA ALL KEYED UP TUCKER CARLSON'S ARTICLE on Alan Keyes left me with the keen sense that not only does the Keyes phenomenon rub the elite liberal media the wrong way, but the conservative elitist media as well ("Keyes to the Presidency," Jan...
...Novak completely misrepresents the debate dynamic...
...Still, Lewis hypothesizes that the use of sludge as fertilizer "could trigger a host of illnesses...
...McCain's supposed concession on the labor issue actually rolls back the puny protection union members currently have...
...Novak urges Republicans to "come out against" taxpayer-funded subsidies currently pouring into presidential campaigns (with the notable exceptions of George W. Bush, Steve Forbes, and Orrin Hatch, who declined the U.S...
...Cohen cites the case of David Lewis, a 29-year career EPA scientist and whistle-blower who opposed the EPA's approval of using municipal sludge as fertilizer...
...Our fight has been to keep Democrats and their few Republican collaborators from making the system worse...
...The truth is that the McCain-Feingold scheme, like the Boren-Mitchell scheme which preceded it, is wrong for America and wrong for Republicans...
...I'm waiting for Bush and McCain to show at least a fraction of Keyes's principled insight, but I'm not hopeful...
...I've considered Hagedorn's comments carefully because I live in Clarke County, Virginia, where sludge is applied to farm fields and where he monitors three streams and several wells in the county...
...The check-off is an entitlement program, automatically diverting those funds from the Treasury...
...They understand the crux of the key issues facing America because Keyes boils them down to their essence...
...Novak and I agree that the circa-1974 $1,000 contribution limit on hard money is strangling campaigns...
...Scientists," Jan...
...That is irrational...
...But his view is wrong, and, judging from the glaring inaccuracies in his article, based in large part on misinformation...
...Novak writes: "If it were up to me I'd remove the limits altogether...
...And it appears to me that this strikes fear in the Republican party leadership...
...According to Hagedorn, data show 99 percent of all pathogens are eliminated when filtered through 12 to 18 inches of soil...
...Ultimately the CDC recommended "standard hygiene" for these workers—including the wearing of gloves when handling sludge and the washing of hands before eating—to avoid future problems...
...Scientific data show that sludge is safe...
...Here's a news flash for Novak: The "reform" scheme he supports would mean a bigger Federal Election Commission, a bigger FEC budget, and a torrent of new government regulations...
...ROSALYN BELLIS Alexandria, VA...
...Ironically, in their rush to embrace a real, live EPA whistle-blower, these conservative critics of the EPA have let their politics cloud their discernment of the science—the exact charge they level at the EPA...
...MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY) Washington, DC THE SCIENCE OF SLUDGE WHILE BONNER R. COHEN is correct in accusing the Environmental Protection Agency of too often playing fast and loose with science, he falls victim to the same ("Environmentalists vs...
...Novak must have missed my many editorials supporting the check-off program's repeal and urging people to check "no...
...This is where he is wrong and where I, as a supporter of Keyes, am personally offended...
...Novak contends that, following "little or no interest" on their part in the 1970s and 1980s, Democrats did not aggressively pursue campaign finance reform until after Republicans gained the majority in 1994...
...There was no Republican "tossing and turning to find a rationale" for retaining a system the Democrats created in the 1970s post-Watergate frenzy...
...Novak is confused about the labor issue, which has nothing to do with their PACs but with their political activities funded out of compulsory-dues-filled union treasuries...
...Novak's view on campaign finance reform is no doubt heartfelt, as evidenced by the considerable newsprint he has devoted to it over the years...
...But the evidence suggests that the approval of bio-solids is not such a case...
...But that won't happen...
...Cohen, unfortunately, is just one of several conservative think-tank analysts who are making Lewis a cause célèbre...
...2) in 1987-88, Senate Republicans, then in the minority, filibustered through the night during the course of fending off a record eight cloture votes on a taxpayer-funded spending limits scheme pushed by the Democratic majority...
...Therefore, they were not casually exposed to sludge, but rather, directly handling it...
...I gravitate to Ambassador Keyes because of his lucid thoughts, ideas, and vision for America which are derived from clear, basic principles...
...Treasury money, thereby saving taxpayers millions) in what he calls a "daring political move," but one that is unlikely because "Republicans obviously don't want to give up that money...
...But Carlson attempts to base Keyes's current success on some kind of emotional response from rapt listeners...
...Novak says we need "clean hands" (via campaign finance reform) to have "less government, less spending, less regulation" which is essential to "change things...
...In other words, the same common-sense precautions any weekend gardener would follow to handle potting soil, compost, or lawn fertilizer...
...You obviously couldn't ignore Keyes any longer once he broke into the "double-digit" category in the polls...
...But Congress keeps appropriating the money," says Novak...
...Correspondence NO TO NOVAK THE MOST REMARKABLE ASPECT of Robert Novak's article on campaign finance reform was its many gross factual errors in regard to the current law, the debate's history, proposed changes, and Republican views ("The GOP and Campaign Finance," Jan...
...It would have fit in quite nicely in the old Soviet Union...
...What Carlson seems not to want to understand—or admit—is that Keyes supporters "get the message...
...But I don't support Keyes because he is a great orator...
Vol. 5 • February 2000 • No. 20
