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For the life of me, I can't figure out why President Bush isn't more proactive on the environment (search). He's an outside kind of guy, cutting brush in Texas, fishing up in Maine, spending quality time in the Bergen Hills of Maryland.
Today we find out that the White House tried to sanitize a government study on global warming. Instead of including both points of view on the issue, the Bush people have shaded the report to the side that sees warming as bogus.
The truth is that only God knows if greenhouse gases and vehicle emissions are changing the climate, but everybody knows that the fewer emissions there are, the better it is for the planet. So why don't we stop all the nonsense and work toward that goal, instead of playing politics with the environment?
The fault doesn't just lie with Mr. Bush. Environmental extremists have spun the issue so tight, that anything they say is suspect. So most Americans just turn the whole thing off.
Now Americans must be able to support their families. And the snail darter has got to realize that, but censoring global warming studies is wrong. And no amount of spinning can make it right.
Now to the Democrats. Senator John Kerry said in New Hampshire that President Bush misled the nation about the Iraq war. Okay, senator, let's see some proof of that. Nearly every Democrat in Congress, including yourself, senator, believed that Saddam (search) was hiding deadly weapons because that was what U.S. and British intelligence was reporting.
Now every day, I present facts to millions of people all over the world. And I rely on my researchers for accurate information. I don't have time to do the verifying myself. If a producer tells me something's true, I believe it. If the information turns out to be false, I correct the record. And that producer's in trouble.
Although it is possible Mr. Bush intentionally misled the world, there's no evidence of that. And if Kerry has some, he'd be well advised to make it public. If he doesn't, he stands to lose credibility. Yesterday I talked with Senator John Edwards, Kerry's competition, about the same subject:
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
O'REILLY: Did President Bush lie about weapons of mass destruction?
SEN JOHN EDWARDS, D-N.C.: I don't know the answer to that question.
O'REILLY: Are there suspicions?
EDWARDS: Did I say that? You said that. And I don't know what they told the president and what we've, in fact, found. It's a big country. You know, we're still looking. My view is we ought to tap down all the emotional response to this and in a serious way, try to determine whether there's a problem in our intelligence gathering and whether any of that information was not accurate. We need to know, number one, to make sure that those who were responsible for it are held accountable, and number two, we need to know so that we don't repeat it if it's happened in the future.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
Well, that sounds reasonable. So summing up, John Kerry has made some provocative statements. And they may come back to bite him hard.
And that's The Memo.
The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day
Our pal Martha Stewart was in federal court Thursday.
She received a trial date -- January 12, 2004 -- when she will try to prove her innocence, even as the feds try to prove that she committed stock fraud, among other things.
Ms. Stewart waved to her supporters, then disappeared. But this case obviously will not.
Ridiculous? You make the call.
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