Why would I trust ANY Republican on ANY subject. It's a feint to let our guard down. I'm as sure as I can be that something foul will come of this. These jackels are SMART.

Oh come along. If instituting tough emissions rules is posturing, then let them posture. If supporting stem cell research is play-acting to let my guard down, well, it's down. Teddy Roosevelt was also a Republican, and an avid hunter at that, and he started the conservation movement. And Nixon, apparently, did more than most to create national parks.

Why are they waiting for us to let our guard down, anyway? To bomb Iran? To steal babies from their cribs and drink their blood? Please. Enough paranoia. There are people in the Republican party who have enough brain cells to understand when it's necessary to break party lines. Schwarzenegger, by the way, was one of the first high-profile Republicans to do so. The stem cell thing was years ago, back when the oh-so-trustworthy Democrats were mum on everything.

Give credit where it's due, will ye?

for sure a state like Florida (the "Sunshine State" after all!) ought to be covered in solar panels.

FreeProton- If we are to give credit where it is due, I'm afraid that the "stem cell thing" is very recent as of January 2007, with Mr. Bush exercising one of only two vetoes during his entire administration to prevent relaxing federal guidelines for funding the research. The Democrats have been anything but mum about it and are making (have made?) a second attempt at getting it through. Back when they were "in charge" (I assume you mean Clinton's administration), the Republican-controlled Congress never allowed any funding in the first place.

As to the topic of brain cells to rub together, the lock-step voting that all but a small handful of Congressional Republicans currently display doesn't look very convincing, other than to demonstrate a herd mentality. It certainly doesn't look terribly responsive to their electorate, which is usually a good way to get yourself voted out of office. Mr. Schwarzenegger figured this out very quickly and I applaud his efforts to get the EPA to do their job.

Gildwrith -- Just to clarify my statement which, I admit, was short on clarity: I was referring to the incident in... oy, was it 2005? It was right after the 2004 elections, I think. At the time Schwarzenegger was consider the poster-child for the Republican Party, he was a much-trumpeted presence at the GOP National Convention, made a splash when he said that it was Nixon who "inspired" him to become a Republican. Next big thing he did was authorize a $3 billion fund for stem cell research in California. This was before Bush vetoed any stem cell legislation, but Bush's position on the issue was very well known.

As a Californian liberal (I work at UC Berkeley, for Pete's Sake) I disliked Schwarzenegger's endorsement of Bush and the high-handed bullying of his first term in office. I must say, however, that unlike the Bush administration, this Republican is capable of admitting his mistakes and learning from them. Yes, he's not perfect and I disagree with him on many issues, but hey, he's making an effort. It's the kind of politician (Republican or Democrat or Green or whatever) that you want to see, right?

Or am I being too much of an idealist?

FreeProton- I think we're in agreement on Mr. Schwarzenegger. I certainly didn't approve of his behavior earlier and I didn't believe he had learned anything until he stuck to his guns concerning stem cells and the EPA stuff. Perhaps we can both be idealists - I keep hoping the folks in D.C. will listen if we scream loudly enough. 'Night...