By: markkris on 1/22/10
I just saw and spoke briefly with (although not about this) Sen. Leeper at the
Martin Luther King PAMPER services, which he attends almost every year.
Some years, Kristi and I and he have been about the only white people there.
This year there were more. I believe that Sen. Leeper is sincere in
attending the services, and he is the ONLY politician that came this year. I give him kudos for this.

He is misguided on the nuclear power issue, though. He was quoted on NPR as saying something to the effect that "there
aren't any safety issues surrounding U.S. reactors anymore." That's just
simply wrong. There have been numerous safety issues at power plants all
along, not the least of which is where to put the waste. But what is
surprising for a supposed fiscal conservative not to be cognizant of the
fact that the industry could not survive without massive government
subsidies - from everything to the Price Anderson liability subsidy, to the
cleanups at the fuel cycle plants, to the creation of USEC and the billions
of dollars of public resources that went to USEC. Without all of that, the
nuclear industry would be economically non-viable. These people that
complain about Obama being a "socialist" should look in the mirror at some
of the things they do.

Mark Donham