Republicans As Dumb As Posts On Energy

Wow, these are just two amazing statements on the drilling debate. First, Rep. John Shimkus accidentally tells the truth at an event in the coal region of Illinois:

You know, if drilling is good, drilling and mining is better. … It’s drilling and mining and using great resources like Illinois coal. You all follow the congressional baseball game. I wore this uniform proudly. It says, ‘The Miners.’ The mining industry and coal is part of the solution.

Yes, why don't we use whale oil too? Shimkus is right, but he doesn't know how right he is. If there's any other argument for how Republicans are stuck in an unsustainable past while Democrats are actually looking toward the future of energy, this is it.

Then there's Newt Gingrich's intentionally stupid comments, where he decides to confuse Big Oil with small businessmen who own gas stations.

GINGRICH: Well, I got a very funny e-mail from a retired military officer in Tampa who pointed out that most tire inflation is done at service stations and you pay for it. And it’s actually a higher profit margin than selling gasoline. So Sen. Obama was urging you to go out and enrich Big Oil by inflating your tires instead of buying gas.

Apparently, he believes that oil companies are in the business of selling air. Why does Newt Gingrich hate small businesses so much?

Why these dishonest attacks are going unchallenged is beyond me.

Paris Hilton Drinks McCain's Milkshake

I think Chris Bowers is absolutely right - Paris Hilton's response to John McCain's celebrity ad has turned the tide of this race to a certain extent. Actually it occurred at a confluence of events: Obama calling McCain and his minions "proud to be ignorant" about car maintenance and fuel efficiency; Obama running a response ad to McCain's O.M. Origina Maverick (ya hear?) ad:



And then Paris pops up with a piece of video offering an objectively more substantive energy plan than McCain ever has. As Bowers says:

Hilton's response is now the top story on Google News, and apparently the McCain campaign is receiving so many media requests about it, that they had to post a from response on their website. They have gotten into a spat with Paris Hilton, which there is basically no way to win. Hilton has nothing to lose, and the back and forth just highlights the frivolic idiocy of McCain's recent attacks.

She's also squeezed him to an extent. Hilton basically endorsed a compromise proposal (I can't believe I wrote that sentence) of limited drilling as a bridge to a green energy future. That's not true; the meager take from coastal drilling is not nearly enough to build that bridge. But in the political context, both candidates are actually agreeing with this, as it's laid out in the bipartisan "Gang of Ten" plan on energy in the Senate. It's a true compromise, and it includes eliminating tax breaks for oil companies and funneling that money into alternative energy research. That central plank of the Democratic Party agenda (it was part of 6 for '06) polls extremely well, in the 70% range. But McCain has already gone on the record against the Gang of 10 compromise:

A spokesman for Sen. McCain said that while he "applauds the bipartisan effort," he wouldn't support the proposal because "he cannot and will not support legislation that raises taxes."

Which opens up a huge gap for Obama to exploit, when everybody figures out that making oil companies rich(er) is McCain's only objective.

What's more, Obama's mockery on the tire gauge nonsense has forced McCain up against a wall on that score:

Predictably, Obama hit back calling McCain’s mockery “ignorant,” arguing his plans were being misrepresented and saying that experts backed his call over tire pressure. Equally predictably, McCain’s camp hit back.

The surprise came during a telephone town hall meeting McCain held on Tuesday with voters in Pennsylvania.

“Obama said a couple of days ago says we all should inflate our tires. I don’t disagree with that. The American Automobile Association strongly recommends it,” McCain said.

The dispute now rests on a lie that the tire pressure tip is Obama's entire energy plan, which has been dismissed as foolishness in just the right way ("it's like these guys are proud to be ignorant.")

Finally, there's an extremely damaging A1 story in the Washington Post this morning that is the result of Obama's recent ads mentioning the $2 million McCain has collected from the oil companies since his change of heart on drilling. There's a throughline between the focus on lobbyists and oil companies and bundlers and donations and this story:

The bundle of $2,300 and $4,600 checks that poured into Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign on March 12 came from an unlikely group of California donors: a mechanic from D&D Auto Repair in Whittier, the manager of Rite Aid Pharmacy No. 5727, the 30-something owners of the Twilight Hookah Lounge in Fullerton.

But the man who gathered checks from them is no stranger to McCain -- he shuttled the Republican on his private plane and held a fundraising event for the candidate at his house in Delray Beach, Fla.

Harry Sargeant III, a former naval officer and the owner of an oil-trading company that recently inked defense contracts potentially worth more than $1 billion, is the archetype of a modern presidential money man. The law forbids high-level supporters from writing huge checks, but with help from friends in the Middle East and the former chief of the CIA's bin Laden unit -- who now serves as a consultant to his company -- Sargeant has raised more than $100,000 for three presidential candidates from a collection of ordinary people, several of whom professed little interest in the outcome of the election [...]

Earlier this week, McCain drew questions about more than $60,000 in donations that were made this year to the Republican National Committee and his campaign by an office manager with the Hess oil company and her husband, an Amtrak track foreman. In that case, the couple said they used their own money.

Some of the most prolific givers in Sargeant's network live in modest homes in Southern California's Inland Empire. Most had never given a political contribution before being contacted by Sargeant or his associates. Most said they have never voiced much interest in politics. And in several instances, they had never registered to vote. And yet, records show, some families have ponied up as much as $18,400 for various candidates between December and March.

Both Sargeant and the donors were vague when asked to explain how Sargeant persuaded them to give away so much money.

There's at the very least the impression of straw donations here, an appearance of impropriety. I know that McCain is not in control of his own campaign, but surely all the connections to Big Oil and shady lobbyists and curious donations ought to take its toll (though I think the media will be consumed with Paris today).

The tenor of this race, aided by events, has changed. McCain is on the defensive.

"it's like these guys take pride in being ignorant."

You go, Barack.

The other day after laying out my energy plan for the next 10 yrs I was asked by a voter if there was anything I can suggest for individuals to do to help improve the energy situation. So I suggested that each person can inflate their tires to the recommended levels among other things. Now the republicans are going around telling people this was the central part of my energy policy, handing out little tire gauges etc. Now two things I'll like to say about that:

They know it is NOT the central part of my energy policy. They know they are lying.

They are making fun of an idea that a lot of experts have also recommended and suggested it could reduce our energy consumption by about 3%, which is more that John McCain's idea of drilling [he then pointed to his toes mocking McCain talking about drilling for oil "right here and now"] can ever provide.

He further said, so I don't know how they could be making fun of something that experts agree is a good idea. I mean it's like these guys take pride in ignorance! It's like they like being ignorant.

That's the kind of game he has to bring every day on the stump.

Speaking of ignorant, the GOP thinks their little cookout on the House floor is actually lowering gas prices. Except for the fact that gas has lowered 23 cents in month, they're... OK, they're still not even right. The answer is market forces - but I wouldn't expect these Big Government conservatives who want the feds to solve all our problems to understand. Krugman had the best rejoinder:

In other news, Republicans credited their speeches for the fact that the sun rose today.

UPDATE: Video. If only his ads contained the mockery of his public statements.

Media Plays Referee! Exclusive!

TIME Magazine actually goes ahead and tells the inconvenient truth.

How out of touch is Barack Obama? He's so out of touch that he suggested that if all Americans inflated their tires properly and took their cars for regular tune-ups, they could save as much oil as new offshore drilling would produce. Gleeful Republicans have made this their daily talking point; Rush Limbaugh is having a field day; and the Republican National Committee is sending tire gauges labeled "Barack Obama's Energy Plan" to Washington reporters.

But who's really out of touch? The Bush Administration estimates that expanded offshore drilling could increase oil production by 200,000 bbl. per day by 2030. We use about 20 million bbl. per day, so that would meet about 1% of our demand two decades from now. Meanwhile, efficiency experts say that keeping tires inflated can improve gas mileage 3%, and regular maintenance can add another 4%. Many drivers already follow their advice, but if everyone did, we could immediately reduce demand several percentage points. In other words: Obama is right.

It's a little stunning to see that in print. Calling out Republicans on their cheap and willfully stupid ploy? However did this happen?

Now, the second half of this is recognizing that this actually speaks to the inadequacy of drilling as much as the importance of proper car maintenance. Nancy Pelosi is actually doing something kind of smart - taking all the heat for blocking a vote on drilling while telling members of her party in tough elections to run against her. She knows that she'll be able to get a better deal in the next Congress if the Democrats can manage to win more seats. I'm not averse to this strategy. But it's really only a hop and a skip from a message that conservation works (which is the focus of the well-written TIME article) and a message that drilling for more meager supplies doesn't. As Al Gore has said, it's like a junkie looking for one last fix.

I think progressive environmental groups are right to call out Sen. Obama for backtracking on drilling. They're living up to their half of the Overton Window. I hope they also recognize the laudatory elements of the plan, including a focus on conservation, and these other innovative ideas:

In this energy plan, Obama recognizes that 837,000 troops have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As President, Barack Obama will ensure that more of our veterans can enter the new energy economy. He will create a new “Green Vet Initiative” that will have two missions: first it will offer counseling and job placement to help veterans gain the skills to enter this rapidly growing field; second, it will work with industry partners to create career pathways and educational programs.

Sent to fight a war on terror, many vets now know -- or will have to admit it soon enough -- that they ended up fighting an oil war instead; and there's a great danger lurking -- that they will feel used and sidelined after having served the nation at the risk of their lives. Embracing this fighting force and turning them toward the battle for a new global energy economy is simultaneously uplifting, pragmatic and healing.

Similarly, Obama recognizes the debt the nation owes to its auto industry, which for a century provided the backbone of American prosperity. It could not have been an accident that he chose to deliver his energy plan in Michigan, where he offered a vision of a bold future, way beyond what any US auto company CEO has ever dared to imagine: an industry revitalized by the manufacture of plug-in hybrid cars that get 150 mpg.

Obama will also provide $4 billion retooling tax credits and loan guarantees for domestic auto plants and parts manufacturers, so that the new fuel‐efficient cars can be built in the U.S. by American workers rather than overseas. This measure will strengthen the U.S. manufacturing sector and help ensure that American workers will build the high‐demand cars of the future.

At the heart of the plan is a target to put 1 million of these vehicles on the road by 2015, with the federal government a primary guaranteed customer. Nobody until now has floated a plan for the rescue of Detroit that makes so much sense, aligning the business success of the industry with both domestic job creation and national energy security.

I feel like I understand the "re-tooling" element of the auto industry rescue a lot better. Bailing them out is one thing - offering them free money to build plug-in hybrids is quite another.

I do wish he'd call out drilling as a gimmick - but the full-court press from the right has made that very difficult, because nobody got in front of this thing beforehand. Pelosi is being sharp by holding off the hordes until the next Congress, and Obama's plan does at least have a lot of commendable facets. The question is whether this new consensus on energy will be destroyed by the chip-chip-chip away of "Drill Now" Republicans who actually have a foothold due to the depressing cave from the Presidential nominee.