Nebraska Congressman Lee Terry (NE-02) is one of the most endangered Republican incumbents in the country. In the Republican primary earlier this week, he gave up 37% of the vote to a Tea Party activist who raised less than $30,000 and didn't even run a real campaign. With such weak support from his own party, Terry now has to face the toughest fight of his political career against Omaha State Senator Tom White, a top-tier Democratic recruit who's already been named to the DCCC's 2010 "Red-To-Blue" program.
So, what's Terry's strategy heading into the general election? How's he going to save his campaign and win a seventh term as a Republican back-bencher without a single noteworthy legislative accomplishment? That's quite simple, really. Terry's following his party's example by making an appeal to the far-fright fringe - declaring a war on science in Omaha schools!
Nebraska Watchdog reports:
A controversial book and video on global warming has lit a fire in Nebraskad's 3rd largest school district. The dispute involves one of the state's highest ranking federal officials and his 12-year-old son.
Nebraska Watchdog has learned that Millard Public Schools (MPS) is the target of complaints and concern from parents, including Congressman Lee Terry (NE-R) and his wife Robyn, regarding the book The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming. In a statement sent exclusively to Nebraska Watchdog, Mrs. Terry writes that global warming is "highly debatable as to whether it is fact, theory or down right fiction"....
On her Facebook page Robyn Terry, who did not file a formal complaint, writes, "The book is a deplorable piece of propaganda aimed at children"....
Robyn Terry tells Nebraska Watchdog that "Lee and I have discussed this at great length" and they want the book removed from the classroom and placed in the library where it can be checked out and read at home with the parents supervision.
Is there a better way to shore-up support from right-wing extremists than to suggest that global warming is "down right fiction"? I doubt it.
Lee Terry and his wife are fighting to protect students from learning the facts about climate change and global warming. Lee Terry wants science removed from the curriculum because it isn't convenient to his political agenda and to his long-time supporters in the energy industry.
Terry has a long record of rewarding those oil companies who've funded his campaigns. He long ago established himself as a "Drill, Baby, Drill" Republican. In a recent radio interview, it was clear that his only concern about the Gulf Coast oil spill is that the country not "overreact" - by which he means taking any action that might hurt his contributors. Sadly, Terry serves as a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where his extremism has done real damage to our nation's energy and environmental policy.
But, this latest extremism is much more dangerous than that. He's going after our schools and our children's educations. They're the ones who are going to have to suffer the consequences of our failures, and they won't have the luxury of living in denial and ignorance - like Terry, his wife, and so many other Republicans.
You can send a huge wake-up call to these out-of touch extremists by supporting Tom White For Congress. Do it for the children! For science! And, for the future!