Waffles
This story has recently been brought to my attention. Some people would call this a flip flop, but at E*D, we prefer waffles. It seems John waffles Kerry may have taken both sides of another issue.

John Kerry took time in Nevada this week to criticize President Bush's decision to use Yucca Mountain as the national repository for nuclear waste. Kerry said the decision was based on politics, not science. Yet in 1999, Kerry encouraged speeding up the timing of making Yucca Mountain ready to accept nuclear waste.

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If we look to an AP Article from Aug 13th 2004, we can see Kerry's criticisms of the President included the following:

"It's about promises kept and promises broken,"

"When John Kerry is president, there is going to be no nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. Period."
Source

Now to be completely honest, I am not entirely 100% convinced this is a waffle. Kerry's letter says "any comprehensive nuclear waste legislation" and "any such legislation" not, as Human Events reads into the letter, "[the Yucca Bill]." So if there were another bill floating around at that time that didn't intend to use the Yucca Mountain, then there could be a pretty good explanation for Kerry on this.

I like crisp, clear waffles - and Kerry has plenty of them - so I'd like to know if Kerry really was referring to the Yucca bill. Was Kerry trying to ship Mass.'s nuclear waste to Yucca specefically? Well maybe the next story can put this question to rest:

As Democrats signaled strong opposition to a plan to bury the nation's nuclear waste in Southern Nevada, the state's Republicans criticized Sen. John Kerry last week as being disingenuous about his voting record on Yucca Mountain.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., issued a list of seven "pro-Yucca" votes that he said Kerry has taken since 1987, including one on a bill that included an infamous "Screw Nevada'' provision limiting studies for a potential dumpsite to Nye County's Yucca Mountain. The provision was part of a massive $17.6 billion budget package.

"The people of Nevada have been led to believe that John Kerry is some sort of savior in our battle against the Yucca Mountain project," Ensign said. "Kerry's voting record shows just the opposite."

Besides the so-called "Screw Nevada" amendment, Kerry voted in 1997 to table an amendment that would have required gubernatorial approval before any nuclear waste could be transported through a state, Ensign said.

"John Kerry is trying to take the moral high ground, and he cannot occupy that moral high ground because of his record," Ensign said.

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Democrats have trumpeted Kerry's votes against the project in 2000 and 2002...

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... Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., said it was important for Nevadans to hear about Kerry's voting record.

"He didn't come clean. He didn't tell us the truth," Porter said. "People are going to look at consistency and leadership, and this is one more example where John Kerry is flip-flopping.

Ah hem! waffles

His only consistency is his inconsistency."
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Well, that just about clears it up. 7 votes authorizing nuclear waste to Yucca versus 2 votes opposing it. Clearly both sides of the Yucca issue, with his recent view of keeping nuclear waste away from Yucca coming within the past 4 years (when he already knew he planned on running for office). Consistantly inconsistant. Another waffle for John Kerry's stack of waffles.


Waffles