3/17/09 4:50 PM
The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Carol Browner a Socialist?
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http://spectator.org/blog/2009/01/12/carol-browner-a-socialist/print
AMSPECBLOG
Carol Browner a Socialist?
By Doug Bandow on 1.12.09 @ 6:16PM
There's a tendency of conservatives to carelessly toss about the "S" word. Like John McCain, who
opposed the Bush tax cuts while spouting left-wing rhetoric, then accusing Barack Obama of being
a socialist because the latter proposed to increase taxes on the rich. It was bad liberal
redistributionist policy, but McCain--for every bail-out as well as cap-and-trade--was in no
position to call his opponent a socialist for advocating the same dumb liberal redistributionist
policies.
However, as the Washington Examiner pointed out last week (and the Washington Times
mentioned today), Carol Browner really is a socialist. Or at least, she belonged to the Commission
for a Sustainable World Society, which is part of the Socialist International. Granted, these are
pretty wimpy socialists, rather than serious guys with guns intent on seizing everyone's property.
But still. Reports the Examiner:
Conservatives are often accused of scaremongering when they claim left-wing environmentalists are actually
socialists hiding behind green disguises. But with Carol Browner, incoming President Barack Obama's
freshly appointed Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change - the so-called White House
"Climate Czar" - there is no question about the socialism. Browner is a member of the Commission for a
Sustainable World Society (CSWS), which is a formal organ of the Socialist International. Oddly enough, the
group's web site was recently scrubbed to remove Browner's picture and biography, but her name is still
listed next to the photo-biographies of her 14 colleagues on the commission. The Socialist International is no
group of woolly-headed idealists. It is an influential assembly of officials from across the international
community whose official Statement of Principles describes an age