Phil Bredesen: Missing in Action
Here's another entry in the puzzling story of our missing-in-action governor. This week, the House killed legislation to place new environmental safeguards on strip mining, and Bredesen admitted that, although he favors such restrictions, he wasn't familiar with the bill and hadn't lifted a finger to help it. As Tom Humphrey reports:
Gov. Phil Bredesen, responding to reporter questions, said he may involve himself in actively supporting similar legislation in the future. He did not push the bill this year and said he was not familiar with details of the measure, though supporting the concept in general."On the whole, some ways of managing the coal mining to minimize the damage … would be desirable," said Bredesen. "For me, with all the energy I've put into trying to preserve lands for future generations in East Tennessee, to have them strip-mined is not consistent with that goal."
This comes after Bredesen refused to help pass the now-dead bill to put wine in our grocery stores, although he's for that too, and said he doesn't care whether state pension fund managers invest in Sudan despite genocide in Darfur. Meanwhile, he seems to have some time on his hands. He spent much of the past two weeks on TV talk shows discussing his idea for a Democratic superdelegate convention.
