Is this the solution to the corruption and corporate control in Washington?
From www.sirotablog.com:
Need some inspiration in these dark political days? Want to see an alternative path to success, one that is unabashedly populist, one that wins red states for Democrats, and one that rejects the split-the-difference, DLC-esque nonsense coming out of the D.C. Democratic establishment? Then read the attached column from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer - it is as entertaining as it is informative and inspiring.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/...
Big Sky governor has big dreams
Friday, November 18, 2005
By JOEL CONNELLY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST
CHENEY -- A sky-high dreamer from the Big Sky State, Gov. Brian Schweitzer aims to make Montana government a lobbyist-free zone and to "create the new energy center of the world."
The mint farmer and cattle rancher -- he once exported bull semen -- has already accomplished a near impossible task. He has revived the Democratic Party in an inland-west state snubbed by his party's presidential candidates.
A statewide poll released last week by Montana State UniversityBillings gives Schweitzer an approval rating of 68 percent, compared with 45 percent for President Bush. Schweitzer is getting noticed in nearby states.
The Montana governor whipped off his bolo tie for auction recently at a Spokane fund-raiser for Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. It went for $2,500.
"He's not your Seattle-type Democrat," said state Rep. David Gallik, a legislator from Helena who once worked as a U.S. Senate aide in Seattle.
Schweitzer was quick to make the same point during a visit to watch Eastern Washington play his alma mater, Montana State. "Well, look," he said, "the Democratic Party has allowed a few to be defining its message, but the party is a big tent."
But the governor is no fan of the Democratic Leadership Council -- the centrist outfit, once headed by an ambitious Arkansas governor named Bill Clinton, that is populated by Washington, D.C., lobbyists and funded by their corporate overlords.
"Washington, D.C., is a giant cesspool filled with special interests," Schweitzer said. "Unless we change the culture of Washington, D.C., we're not going to change the country."
In Helena, Schweitzer has adopted a policy of not allowing any lobbyist to serve on a state board or commission.
Montana is a state with a strong -- almost ornery -- sense of independence. The attitude has been spawned by a history of rough exploitation.
Railroads lured 19thcentury homesteaders to land that was too arid for farming. Mining companies left a legacy of polluted streams and, in the town of Libby, workers dying from asbestos-related cancers. Timber multinationals stripped miles of forests from private land.
Montana has gotten its fill of lobbyists, or "manure piled around government," in Schweitzer's words. Lobbyists were behind an energy deregulation bill that allowed Wall Street to strip Montana Power of $2.7 billion in power assets, leaving the company bankrupt and its investors out in the cold.
Schweitzer believes it's time for Montana to protect its natural beauty, take charge of its enormous coal reserves, and -- the man dreams big dreams -- try to wean American from its dependence on Middle East oil.
The Iraq war has galvanized Schweitzer, who in his youth spent seven years working on irrigation projects in Saudi Arabia.
"It isn't U.S. senators, the secretary of defense or the secretary of energy who go to funerals when bodies come back from Iraq. It's governors," he said. "I recommit myself, at every funeral, to energy independence.
"Unless we do that, governors will be going to funerals for 30 years. Unless energy security is under our control, our communities are not safe."
"I'm a pragmatist. I'd be more than happy to go to Afghanistan and put Osama bin Laden's head on a stick. Why, though, fight an energy war when we have the solution right at hand?"
Schweitzer has persuaded Montana legislators to adopt a far-reaching plan for development of biodiesel and wind power technology.
The key, however, is coal. Montana sits on 120 billion tons of the stuff, 35 percent of America's reserves and 11 percent of the world's coal deposits.
"We have the technology to convert Montana coal to gas and diesel with zero emissions," Schweitzer said. "The extra carbon we can pump right back into the earth.
"It's a win, win, win situation. We'll create tens of thousands of high-paying jobs. We will no longer be at the mercy of sheiks, dictators, rats and crooks. When we give oil money to Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, it is going to promote anti-American sentiment throughout Latin America. In the Middle East, one way or another, money is getting into the hands of terrorists.
"The stage is Montana. If we don't get help from Washington, D.C., so what! We will get it done. ... One of these days, when Washington, D.C., wakes up, they'll discover we're doing it in Montana."
It's heady stuff. Seven fellow governors heard Schweitzer out at an energy conference last month in Bozeman. Rolling Stone magazine dubbed him the United States' "hottest" governor.
Is it feasible? It's been 77 years since German scientists developed the Fischer-Tropsch process for converting coal into synthetic gasoline or diesel fuel.
At a hotel in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., years ago, I heard a fascinating World War II lecture by Luftwaffe fighter ace Gen. Adolf Galland.
How did Germany's planes stay in the air once Romania's oil fields were overrun? somebody asked. Galland answered that almost all Luftwaffe aviation fuel came from synthetic fuels, along with the gasoline that powered Tiger tanks in the Ardennes.
Could it work here? To Schweitzer, it's a way of weaning America's economy from its dependence on foreign oil. And this "red state" Democrat may have found a program to lead his party out of the wilderness.