When Fred Upton was named the Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee last December, it was not just one of the biggest victories of his career, but also a victory over radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, who waged an on-air crusade to deny the Michigan Republican the gavel.
Now, Upton is taking on another bloated force — the Environmental Protection Agency. As he writes in his lead op-ed for this latest edition of THE RIPON FORUM, “A million or more large and small businesses, as well as many farms and buildings, would eventually come under the agency’s regulatory authority” if new rules the EPA is now proposing were to go into effect.
Upton is pushing a plan to block these rules, which he discusses in his op-ed. In pushing this plan, he is essentially jabbing a finger in the chest of those who thought he would back down in the face of this regulatory onslaught. He is also redefining what it means to be a centrist Republican. It is a brand of centrism that places pragmatism ahead of politics and issues over ideology. It is also a brand of centrism that we embrace.
Indeed, we burned our Birkenstocks long ago here at The Ripon Society. And the posters of Nelson Rockefeller have long been put away. In their place are posters bearing the new heroes of Republican centrism. Governors like Rick Snyder, who is using his experience as the former CEO of Gateway Computer to cut spending and instill business-like efficiency in the government of his home state. Senators like Scott Brown, who is carving an independent path on Capitol Hill as someone who always puts people ahead of party and never forgets the working class roots from which he came. And Representatives like Fred Upton, who, in taking on the EPA, is setting out to prove that one can support a clean environment and a strong economy at the same time. Here’s hoping he succeeds.
And here’s hoping you enjoy this latest edition of the FORUM, which also features — among other leaders and topics — State Department Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Kay Granger writing about the politics of Egypt and former Congressman Bob Walker writing about the politics of 1995. We are also very pleased to feature in our latest Ripon Profile Susana Martinez, who, with her election as Governor of New Mexico last fall, became the first Latina Governor in the United States.
As always, we hope you enjoy this edition of THE RIPON FORUM, and we encourage you to write us at editor@riponsociety.org with any thoughts or comments you may have.
Lou Zickar
Editor
THE RIPON FORUM