Posted 1:25 PM by Floyd

(It was only after I created the first post that I realized how stupid this would look in a LIFO blog. Bear with me.)

Another one of Anne's postings complained about, among other things, the Bush administration's relaxation of clean air guidelines. (I'm not providing a link to the story Anne cited, because it's on the LA Times. The LA Times website makes you despair of ever reading a newspaper online again.) Here was my response:

... easing the Clean Air Act regs will likely lead to cleaner air. It used to be that industrial plants had to fully modernize when upgrading their plants. As a result they would not upgrade at all, and there was no improvement to pollution.

Republicans realize that regulations can have unintended or perverse consequences. It's one of the main reasons for their success over the last twenty years. Not only do they appeal to those burdens by regulation, but the recognition of unintended consequences makes Republicans seem intelligent and sophisticated.

Furthermore, the Democrats are continuously complaining that Republicans are attempting to poison or pollute or defund America to death. Fewer and fewer Americans are buying it. At some point these complaints will have only cathartic value for hard-core Democrats. (It's possible that the point has already been reached, as I don't remember the 33rd element being an issue in the 2002 campaign.)