As I said in another post, the rust belt states such as Ohio, are to climate action, what the old Dixiecrat South was to civil rights. There is only one way this nut will be cracked and that is an inside/outside strategy. Namely mobilize climate activists in the rust belt, and get ideas, money and technical advice from the more advanced parts of the country, and then CHARGE!

Regarding Ohio and Democratic Senator Brown's vote against the Climate Security Act, a correspondent of mine brought up an interesting point. Brown has now provided cover for Republican Senator George Voinovich, who is one of the most notorious of the Triple D crowd (Deny, Delay, Dither). This really screws things up for Ohio environmentalists in opposing Voinovich's next election.

Randy Cunningham
Cleveland, OH

Randy Cunningham

As noted, this was a very close vote -- but what I don't understand and what has not been commented on are the people who did not show up:  Clinton, McCain & Obama did not show up to vote.  And their statements of support -- and those of others who didn't show are MEANINGLESS.  People need to be putting pressure on those who chose to vote against this as well as those who chose not to show up to vote.  (Kennedy, Byrd & Specter all have serious health issues -- Specter's office indicated that he would have voted against it.)