Chalk up another life-long Republican who is anxious to vote for John Kerry. This time the issue is the environment and the Republican is Nixon’s former EPA director.
Russell Train is so disappointed in President Bush’s environmental record that the staunch Republican, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s second leader 30 years ago, is casting his vote in November for Democrat John Kerry.
Train, 84, EPA administrator under Presidents Nixon and Ford from 1973 to 77, was in Madison [Wis.] Tuesday in support of Environment2004, an organization trying to end what it calls the anti-environmental agenda of the Bush administration.
A Washington insider for more than half a century, Train said the Bush administration’s performance is a radical rollback of environmental rules to benefit special interests.
Like Ambassador John Eisenhower, Train is not only backing Kerry, he’s leaving the GOP altogether because of Bush.
The administration’s reversal of a finding that mercury is a hazardous pollutant is one of 400 rollbacks of environmental protections cited by Enviroment2004, and Train said the reversal is the reason he’s switched parties this presidential election.
“Almost anybody’s policy would be better than George Bush,” Train said in an interview with The Capital Times Wednesday. “Kerry’s environmental record in Congress is extremely good.”
I don’t know how many of these anecdotes influence public opinion, but I love them anyway.