http://bluenationreview.com/bernie-pushed-to-dump-nuclear-waste-on-low-income-community/According to the Texas Observer, when activists confronted Bernie about sponsoring the bill, he reportedly told them: “My position is unchanged, and you’re not gonna like it.” When asked if he would visit the site in Sierra Blanca, he said, “Absolutely not. I’m gonna be running for re-election in the state of Vermont.”
Bernie claimed to be supporting the bill because the Texas site was supposedly a safer place to dump such waste than Vermont or Maine, but it’s hard to separate the demographics of this poor Latino community from the issue.
Environmental activists argued that “it would be hazardous to locate it in the state’s most seismically active region and above a key groundwater source.” Furthermore, according to the AP:
The bill was initially blocked by progressive hero Sen. Paul Wellstone and was eventually passed unanimously and signed by President Clinton after changes were made that provided the community legal recourse to oppose the waste disposal. Wellstone’s objections were compelling:
This entire episode undercuts the notion that Bernie is above “politics as usual.” Of course, to suggest that it revokes his status as a progressive would be unfair, but that’s exactly why imposing strict guidelines of progressivism is dangerous.[/quote]
God, I wish when we had real progressive leaders, like Paul Wellstone in this country, who were committed to building the progressive movement and getting progressive Democrats elected. Instead we're stuck with this apparently-racist old man running a divisive vanity campaign. Sad.
