Bush Quietly Undermines Environmental Rules

Uses obscure reglatory changes rather than going to Congress

This is not a particularly new story, but its told in great detail today in the New York Times Magazine.

It's so messy trying to change the laws that require the Enviromental Protection Agency to actually protect the environment. You want to do what your friends pay you to do, but all the public debates, the votes, partisanship, newspaper articles, all that yechy Washington stuff. Much easier just to weaken application of the laws through obscure regulatory changes and bureaucratic directives. Too bad this article comes out just as a Washington Post poll finds that fewer and fewer people think President Bush is governing as a compassionate conservative.