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Christine Todd Whitman has always interested me. She was, at one time, the darling of the Republican party. When she was young, beautiful, and blond she became the Governor of New Jersey. She seemed to be the perfect package: Looks and brains. She engendered a lot of attention and many people were hopeful that she might be the one female to break the barrier and become the next President.

However, Christine increasingly began to show herself to be a neocon: A person as unrelated to the Reagan Revolution as Ted Kennedy is. While in office she attempted to keep partial birth abortions legal and went on a lark with a police officer to get her photograph in the paper (frisking a 16 year old black man who wasn't even arrested). This caused a firestorm of controversy and her successes in the environmental arena paled in comparison to these faux pas, in my opinion.

After serving as Governor, Whitman (who is distantly related to the Bush family by marriage) was appointed as the head of the EPA to serve under the Bush administration.

In early 2005, Whitman came out with a book titled "It's My Party, Too", in which she alleged that the Christian Fundamentalists were attempting to hijack the Republican Party (I agreed with her at the time). This book caused a firestorm and angered many fellow Republicans. Since then, I've come to believe that the only people that have hijacked the Republican party are the neocons who are the puppets of Big Business.

Now it has come out that Whitman made some very mistaken statements to the people as the head of the EPA during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In an attempt to manage the public terror afterwards, she lied in published statements, attesting that the air and water were safe (when there was no proof whatsoever). This was not solely Whitman's call: These statements were made under the direction of the Bush administration. She had also collaborated with "James L. Connaughton, a former lobbyist for the asbestos and electric power industries, to soften EPA statements about air and water quality, the EPA inspector general found."*

All I can think about is someone who is very close to me who almost went to "Ground Zero" to help out the search crews. Last minute he decided it wasn't feasible to go. However, the only reason he didn't go was the amount of travel time from Florida to New York City. After all, we had all been assured that the air and water were fine. I wonder, what if he had gone on misinformation contrived by the neocons? And legally: How responsible are they for the health problems that were gained because of needless exposure that was due to their lies? If not legally, they are certainly ethically responsible.

Christine Todd Whitman: How far you've fallen.

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