Published: April 18, 2008 10:16 am      

Rockefeller outlines Dems’ roles

PRINCETON — On hand to rally local Democrats Saturday, Sen. Jay Rockefeller urged supporters to drive public policy toward cleaner coal technology and rush ballot booths to get Republicans out of the White House.

The senator arrived last weekend to address the county’s Democratic Nominating Convention, a standing-room-only crowd that filled one of Mercer County’s circuit courtrooms and left longtime political devotees surprised and smiling.

United against Republicans in general and GOP presidential hopeful John McCain specifically, the two Democratic contenders drew their own lines of support inside the audience, as badges and stickers for both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were in high fashion for the political party.

Rockefeller didn’t back either Democrat Saturday, and he encouraged the eager audience members not to allow their zeal for one candidate to cloud the party’s primary goal.

“At the end of the day, we all are one,” he said, calling for Democrats to be “dedicated to fastening ourselves to the sacred task of making sure John McCain never gets to be president.”

Referring to the Bush Administration’s eight-year run in Washington as the “most horrible eight years” he had ever experienced, Rockefeller said Americans face a “confusing and complex time” in the months and years ahead.

“Everywhere you look, things seem to be going wrong, and we’re not accustomed to that as a people,” he said.

For inspiration, the veteran senator, who happens to still be West Virginia’s junior senator behind Sen. Robert C. Byrd, said he turns to the influence and history of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who led the United States through some of its darkest economic times. Throughout his presidency, Rockefeller said Roosevelt faced uncertainty and fear, but when he faced a nation, he spoke of hope.

“He always said things like, ‘Yes, things are hard, but things have been hard before and we’ve made it,’” Rockefeller said, adding that he believed Americans needed a dose of that thinking now.

He identified three priorities that could help get there: More efficient energy, better care for veterans and insurance availability for children.

With 250-450 years of coal supply in 16 states, the U.S. could be in a key position to become energy independent, if the nation had the political will to develop technology that can make the most of our coal without harming the environment.

If Americans would find a way to fund approximately $10 billion to $15 billion in research, development and design, Rockefeller said the science is out there to take the carbon dioxide out of coal liquids that could be used for electricity, transportation and more.

“We could do that right here in the United States if we had the political will to do it,” he said.

Doing so would mean the nation “could forget” about today’s oil-producing nations such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela and more.

Turning attention to the nation’s military veterans, Rockefeller said their health care has been consistently underfunded far too long and pledged to do everything within his power to reverse that trend.

The senator routinely meets with veterans out of the presence of media to encourage open dialogue, and he said he hears similar traumas and heartaches, in addition to physical ailments, everywhere he goes.

Some of the soldiers tell how they have to consciously remember that the children who jump on them in play are not the enemy.

“They tell me, ‘I very, very slowly have to push that boy off my lap so I won’t hurt him,’” Rockefeller said. “Some tell me of waking up in the middle of the night and believing their wife is actually an Iraqi with a knife.”

And, while veterans protect the nation, Rockefeller said children are our future and must be cared for with insurance whenever possible. He said the Bush Administration failed to do that by vetoing federal Children’s Health Insurance Program measures that would have expanded coverage in the government-provided coverage for kids.

Rockefeller said his plan would have paid for the spending with a tax on tobacco, but Bush nixed the bill in his estimation because it called for a tax increase of any kind.

“I’d like to know what’s so dangerous about insuring children,” he said.

Refusing to rely on taxes is an impossibility in a nation and a time when roads are crumbling and educational problems persist, Rockefeller said.

“We’ve got to change it, so we’ve got to be unified.”

— Contact Tammie Toler at ttoler@ptonline.net.