Russell Train Jumps Ship

The Nixon-appointed head of the EPA (a lifetime Republican) doesn't like what he's seeing from the White House crackheads. He's a Kerry guy now.

EPA's chief under Nixon rips Bush on environment
Says he will vote for Kerry

Russell Train is so disappointed in President Bush's environmental record that the staunch Republican, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's second leader 30 years ago, is casting his vote in November for Democrat John Kerry.

Train, 84, EPA administrator under Presidents Nixon and Ford from 1973 to 77, was in Madison Tuesday in support of Environment2004, an organization trying to end what it calls the anti-environmental agenda of the Bush administration.

A Washington insider for more than half a century, Train said the Bush administration's performance is a radical rollback of environmental rules to benefit special interests.

The administration's reversal of a finding that mercury is a hazardous pollutant is one of 400 rollbacks of environmental protections cited by Enviroment2004, and Train said the reversal is the reason he's switched parties this presidential election.

"Almost anybody's policy would be better than George Bush," Train said in an interview with The Capital Times Wednesday. "Kerry's environmental record in Congress is extremely good."

Ironically, Train was awarded the presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in America, from the first President George Bush in 1991.