Chet Edwards Draws Fire From Demos and Republicans

Left and Right both object to budget, clean air posture

Conservatives object because he is not particularly in favor
of a budget resolution.

Liberals criticize him for his hankering to return to the
Bush-Cheney approach to the Clean Air Act.

Congressman Chet Edwards, D-Waco, is balancing the fine line
of the traditional conservative Democrat as he makes his way
through the general election campaign season.

Conservative opponent Bill Flores pitched fire at him today,
challenging him to say if he will be fighting for a budget
resolution.

"Every day families set a budget and stick to it, especially
in hard times," said Mr. Flores, a retired oil executive
from Houston who now makes his home at College Station.

"It is time for Chet Edwards to stand up, show some
leadership, and demand that Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats
take some responsibility and pass a budget. Texans would
hope that as a senior member of the House Budget Committee,
Chet Edwards would demand that the House not abandon their
responsibilities and instead pass a budget."

Mr Edwards is on record saying a budget resolution is a
"Concurrent resolution, not a law, setting out the
congressional spending priorities for the next five fiscal
years."

Mr. Flores countered, saying, "Perhaps the Democrats are not
passing a budget because they are embarrassed about the
wasteful spending and tax increases in the first two Obama-
Pelosi budgets that he supported, increasing the federal
government by 44 perent at a time when family budgets were
tightening."

On the other side, liberals castigated Mr. Edwards'
cosponsorship of legislation that would roll back the Clean
Air Act and overturn some of President Obama's "most
important achievements on clean energy."

Said the on-line organization Move On.org, "President Obama
is giving clean energy jobs a big boost by enforcing Clean
Air Act limits on global warming pollution that were ignored
by President Bush. But Rep. Edwards's bill would overturn
all that and force Obama to adopt the Bush-Cheney policy."