I still cannot fathom how John McCain could continually bend over backwards to suit the Bush campaign throughout the summer and fall (I understand he wants to be President in 2008, but was it really worth it?). It appears as though he might be finding his former self once again. Andrew C. Revkin reports in The New York Times tomorrow that the Arizona Senator has now decided to stand up to the administration on the issue of the environment (of which he is a strong proponent). In "Election Over, McCain Criticizes Bush on Climate Change", Revkin leads thusly:

Wasting no time distancing himself from President Bush on an issue that has long divided them, Senator John McCain yesterday called the White House stance on climate change "terribly disappointing" and said inaction in the face of mounting scientific data was unjustified.

Two weeks after the end of a campaign in which he stumped for Mr. Bush's re-election, Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona, is convening a Senate hearing today on the human effect on climate and what to do about it.

[...]

The focus of today's hearing, the last of Mr. McCain's six-year tenure as chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, will be rapid warming in the Arctic, the subject of a recent report by a panel of nearly 300 scientists. The report, commissioned by eight nations with Arctic territory, including the United States, found that rising temperatures had already eroded glaciers, sea ice and permafrost and could lead to vast changes in the region's environment and in global sea levels by the end of the 21st century.

The hearing is the latest of more than a dozen on human-caused global warming that Mr. McCain has convened during his chairmanship of the committee. The new chairman is expected to be Senator Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican who has voted against Mr. McCain's bill [to begin to regulate greenhouse emmissions] but has often said that the warming climate poses a severe challenge to his state and particularly to indigenous Arctic cultures.

If there is one "morals" issue that the Democrats can consistently win on (whether they are centrists or liberals), it is the environment. While it is true that running on an "enviromental" platform could alienate some business interests, if the Democrats indeed want to be able to win a "values" debate, playing the enviroment card would be highly affective. It's no surprise, then, that McCain is going back to his pro-environment stances to try to woo voters for 2008.