Obama Considering RFK Jr. for Cabinet Position

[boooeee]

http://www.mlive.com/us-politics/index.ssf/2008/11/obama_considers_stars_for_cabi.html

President-elect Barack Obama is strongly considering Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Environmental Protection Agency, a Cabinet post, Democratic officials told Politico.

I hope Obama reconsiders. I don't know the first thing about Junior's environmental credentials, but what I do know doesn't fill me with optimism.

Wikipedia

Kennedy authored a June 2005 article in Rolling Stone alleging connections between the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal in inoculations and childhood autism.[25] Mainstream medical opinion is that there is no convincing scientific evidence to support this allegation.[26]

In an article in the June 5, 2006, issue of Rolling Stone entitled Was the 2004 Election Stolen?, Kennedy comes to the conclusion that the Republican Party stole the 2004 American presidential election. Farhad Manjoo, Technology and Business staff writer for Salon.com, has criticized Kennedy's interpretation and methodology.[27] Kennedy responded to Manjoo's criticisms in detail.[28]

Kennedy has been criticized for receiving royalty payments for participation in two family-owned oil drilling companies, and also for using private jets while lecturing about the perils of global warming.[29]

 

[davefoc]

I was disappointed to hear that also.

He writes a standard partisan Democratic column over on HuffingtonPost. I thought some of the stuff was over the top and stopped reading it. I've gotten a bit tired of partisan hacks from either the left or the right.

And of course, he's a flaming idiot on the autism thing. Since he began his rantings the evidence has become even stronger that this is one completely bogus issue. There were a lot of thoughtful responses to his ranting over at HuffingtonPost but I don't think he's driven by evidence. He feels that flu vaccines made his son autistic so now he knows it and there is just not enough evidence in the world to get him to change his mind.

 

[Hokulele]

Ugh.

 

[boooeee]

Fortunately, Kennedy is one of many candidates under consideration.

Wired

Leading candidates for the position, reports Bloomberg News, include former Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection head Kathleen McGinty; California Air Resources Board leader Mary Nichols; Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection leader Ian Bowles; Kansas governor Kathleen Sibelius; New Jersey environmental commissioner Lisa Jackson; and environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Only Kennedy strikes me as weak. His environmental track record is excellent, but he's clung to the vaccines-causing-autism hypothesis long after large-scale epidemiological studies have discredited it as anything but a statistically insignificant cause. America doesn't need more political officials who skew science to fit personal beliefs.

Nicely put.

 

[Cicero]

Any perspective candidate with the last name Kennedy or Bush should be automatically excluded for any future White House position no matter what the capacity.

 

[patrick767]

I too hope Obama chooses someone else. I'm a big Obama supporter and I have confidence that he will in general pick a very intelligent, capable cabinet. However, I can't support someone for head of the EPA who so obviously doesn't respect scientific research.

 

[not_so_new]

Any perspective candidate with the last name Kennedy or Bush should be automatically excluded for any future White House position no matter what the capacity.

LOL

I too hope Obama chooses someone else. I'm a big Obama supporter and I have confidence that he will in general pick a very intelligent, capable cabinet. However, I can't support someone for head of the EPA who so obviously doesn't respect scientific research.

I agree with both points completely.

 

[dudalb]

Yeah, not a good choice.
If Obama needs a Kennedy connection, the rumor that Carolyn Kennedy as UN Ambassador seems an excellent choice.
BUt I do not someone with Bobby jrs record of supporting Woo in the EPA.
Besides, he might unleash a plague of ghosts on New York City...

 

[davefoc]

How about Christine Whitman.

He said he was going to appoint at least one Republican. She's done the job before and Dick Cheney subverted her efforts the first time around.

OK, I just looked up the wikipedia article on her and there's problems.
1. She was involved in some stupid incident where as part of a cop ride along she frisked a black suspect. The suspect sued and the incident pissed a few people off.

2. She was head of the EPA after 9/11 and got involved in the controversy about whether the area near the fallen twin towers was safe or not.

I like her, but given those unfortunate details I probably wouldn't pick her. Not because I thought she wouldn't do a good job, just because I wouldn't want to start off my administration with unnecessary controversy. There's probably lots of people qualified who aren't going have easily attacked issues.

 

[Crowlogic]

RFK Jr. is hardly an idiot. As for the election being stolen in 2004 anyone with an brains at all knows that it was.

 

[Cicero]

RFK Jr. is hardly an idiot. As for the election being stolen in 2004 anyone with an brains at all knows that it was.

Remove the "hardly" and you have an accurate sentence. Didn't you know that every election where a Republican wins is stolen?

 

[dudalb]

RFK Jr. is hardly an idiot. As for the election being stolen in 2004 anyone with an brains at all knows that it was.

Uh, a great many Democrats here reject the 2004 theories as crap.
Trying to be Ben Burch Jr?

 

[aerosolben]

RFK Jr. is hardly an idiot. As for the election being stolen in 2004 anyone with an brains at all knows that it was.

Regardless of the reality of election chicanery in 2004, RFK Jr.'s article was a cherry-picked, quote-mined POS.

 

[Thunder]

I heard RFK Jr. speak in 1999. This man is amazing!!! I dont think he wants to be in governmant, but if he did...I think he would make a great EPA Director.

 

[davefoc]

Regardless of the reality of election chicanery in 2004, RFK Jr.'s article was a cherry-picked, quote-mined POS.

I'm not going to take the trouble to reread it, but when I read it the first time that was exactly my reaction. Haven't we had enough of this over the top partisanship for the last eight years?

Maybe parky is right about him, but it sure doesn't look like it to me.

 

[Crowlogic]

Haven't we had enough of this over the top partisanship for the last eight years?

QUOTE]

Yes the Neocons were way too over the top! However a little liberal partisanship is in order to make sure the stake stays driven through the heart of those bastards for as long as possible.

 

[Crowlogic]

...

 

[Crowlogic]

Uh, a great many Democrats here reject the 2004 theories as crap.
Trying to be Ben Burch Jr?

Well it just goes to show that a great many Democrats are wrong about it. Ben Burch Jr? Ben is a lightweight but for the most part pretty much on the money.

 

[boooeee]

Yes the Neocons were way too over the top! However a little liberal partisanship is in order to make sure the stake stays driven through the heart of those bastards for as long as possible.

Does RFK Jr.'s stance on vaccines and autism concern you at all? Or is it okay, since he plays for the right team?

 

[GreyICE]

RFK Jr. is hardly an idiot. As for the election being stolen in 2004 anyone with an brains at all knows that it was.

When insulting people's intelligence for not believing your pet conspiracy theory, at least try to avoid obvious grammatical errors and typos. We'll still laugh at you, but we will at least laugh at something a little less obvious.