Wasting Money Early

Looks like a lot of the Democratic Presidential hopefuls are already getting a head start on wasting the people's money :

Former Sen. John Edwards' 2008 presidential campaign has paid nearly $22,000 to offset its global-warming emissions this year, including more than $5,000 a month from April through June, making him the candidate with the largest acknowledged output of greenhouse gases.

Meanwhile, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign spent $2,367 to offset its emissions for April alone, while Sen. Christopher J. Dodd paid $650 for his presidential campaign's emissions from April through June.

Together, they are the three campaign pioneers in the new world of carbon neutrality: the idea of "offsetting" their greenhouse-gas emissions by paying a third-party company to plant trees, build clean-energy projects or take other steps that will lead to less carbon dioxide being emitted.

Presidential campaigns, it turns out, are a dirty business, environmentally speaking — and for the first time, the campaigns' Federal Election Commission reports are providing a glimpse of just how dirty they are when it comes to greenhouse-gas emissions.

I am amazed that, given how money is the "mother's milk" of politics, that these candidates would spend so recklessly on these environment indulgences for zero political gain on an unproven environmental concept.

Actually, given that we're talking about Sens. Clinton, Dodd, and Edwards....I'm probably not that amazed.