You know the Democrats have to be really full of shit when even the NY Times is bludgeoning them:
With the election season moving into full swing as Americans start thinking about their summer travel plans, it’s sadly predictable that politicians will try to curry favor with voters by playing silly blame games and proposing simplistic quick fixes for rising gasoline prices, which are averaging more than $2 a gallon. A case in point is the demand made yesterday by 20 Senate Democrats that the government release as much as 60 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over the next two months.
President Bush is rightly resisting the call. Since 9/11, the administration has been adding to the reserve in a disciplined manner, and it is closing in on its goal of filling up the reserve’s capacity, 700 million barrels. Tapping the reserve to assuage motorists at a time of increasing security threats to already tight fuel supplies would be foolish…
Senator John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, knows this, of course, and he demeans the seriousness of his own candidacy when he suggests that President Bush could single-handedly bring down fuel costs. Senator Kerry has urged the administration to stop buying oil for the reserve, as if that would make a difference. Fortunately, some residue of shame has kept him from joining the other Democrats calling for the reserve to be raided. The government’s oil purchases have taken place at a time of higher prices, but they are not a major cause of the increase.
Some residue of shame…
poormedicalstudent
wow. that came from the NY Times? are you sure?
oh look, weather’s changing. good thing i brought my umbrella to shield the pig slop.
S.W. Anderson
Look beneath the surface and beyond the moment.
The Bush/Republican position will likely change so fast you’ll get whiplash, if his political handlers perceive the election could hinge on raiding the oil reserve. I can see the photo-op now, as Bush with a hardhat on turns a valve out somewhere just north of Steppedinitagaindammit, Texas.
What’s really at work right now isn’t so much principled conservation of the reserves as it is a “serves ’em right” attitude.
What Bush and most Republicans in Congress want, and have been mightily frustrated in ramming through, is a comprehensive energy bill that pays oil, gas and other companies taxpayer-funded windfall bonuses to do what they do for a living. Plus, they want to hold MTBE producers free of any liability, ever, no matter what. Oh, and throw in exploiting that Alaskan wildlife refuge oil and gas — which some see as a low-cost, in-the-ground strategic reserve.
poormedicalstudent
anderson, did you read that straight from the democrat.org talking points page?
Lex
OTOH, there’s actually a good case to be made for holding off on additional purchases until the price comes down some. The reserve is almost at capacity anyway, so the marginal benefit of topping it off ain’t that great; the price is at record high; and postponing those purchases might, in and of itself, help the price come down at least a little.
JKC
John’s point is valid. Let’s not forget, though, that President Bush appeared on TV that same day in a sound bite saying that if only Congress had passed Cheney’s energy bill and allowed drilling in ANWR, we “wouldn’t be in this position.”
Stupidity, alas, knows no partisan boundaries.