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Drilling Down: John E. Hits Stage 3 of GOP Talking Points

by: Dean Barker

Tue Jun 10, 2008 at 20:54:31 PM EDT
I think we've now reached Stage 3  of Sununu's relationship to environmentalism, taken directly (as always) from the emerging GOP talking points.

Stage 1  was: gas is cheap, so stop complaining about climate change.  Stage 2 ?  Uh-oh, gas is rising. Let's put on our kabuki costumes.

But now? Screw the environment, people are freaking out over gas prices, and I'm going to get hammered come election time for it. Drill! DRILL!!!!

"China is drilling 60 miles off the coast of Florida, and the extreme, left-wing environmental groups will not allow us to do the same," Sununu said.
Yes, by all means, let's imitate China's sterling record on the environment! And since when did ANWR opponent Charlie Bass become a member of the extreme left-wing?

Of course, there isn't a stage in the GOP playbook that will allow them to disrespect their Big Oil corporate taskmasters, so it was pretty telling that despite the deep electoral trouble he is in, John E. joined in on the filibuster of a bill that would have taxed windfall profits from Big Oil.

That's really not gonna look good when we're paying $4.50 a gallon in early November.

Morning Update: Priceless. JimC does some drilling himself, and discovers that the extreme left-wing environmentalists are preventing Sununu and us from making deals with Fidel Castro.  Why do left-wing extremists hate Cuba America?
Dean Barker :: Drilling Down: John E. Hits Stage 3 of GOP Talking Points
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Drilling Down: John E. Hits Stage 3 of GOP Talking Points | 9 comments
Drilling (4.00 / 5)
Well that sent me to Google -- and according to various sources (mostly right-wing blogs), China is drilling off the Florida coast because it's a contract with Cuba.

So add one more layer of irony to the several you've already found here, Dean. Perhaps the senator wants to normalize trade with Cuba?

Rhetorical Boomerangs (4.00 / 1)
I always thought that the best politicians (and bloggers) were well aware of the boomerang quality of words.

When pols speak well, opponents can try playing billiards, deploying a bank shot.

When pols speak poorly, opponents merely fan the winds that carry the boomerang back to the speakers noggin.

You can't always see the trajectory, but John E. Sunoco should have had a better grip on this one before he let it fly.

www.KusterforCongress.com  

[ Parent ]
Apparently the Senator (4.00 / 3)
does want to(?) normalize trade relations with Cuba.

His statement is kind of funny, though, because as far as left-wing interest groups go, traditionally, it has been pretty hard to be further to the "left" than the Communists.

[ Parent ]
I do wonder (0.00 / 0)
if that somewhat out of character position he's taken has to do with the fact that his father John H. was born in Havana Cuba?
[ Parent ]
Florida -- Drilling for Oil (and Sununu's brain, perhaps?) (4.00 / 1)
One reason we don't drill for oil off the Florida coast:  The Republican Governor of Florida, a leading McCain supporter and VP frontrunner, is a staunch opponent of that lamebrained policy.  

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/11...

So much for states' rights. . . .

 

Sounds like an issue (0.00 / 0)
we've encountered before
[ Parent ]
Ahhh.. Sununu fell for another Cheney lie. (4.00 / 2)
The China drilling story appears to be a right-wing fiction.

Hey, right-wing fictions are good enough for Sununu's war votes. Why not energy policy too?

OMFG (0.00 / 0)
So the deal exists (it seems), but has never been acted on. And the GOP is pouncing on it because "far-left environmental groups" are a talking point for this year. See Hannah's diary: http://www.bluehampshire.com/s...


[ Parent ]
They're probably referring to this (0.00 / 0)
China has also embarked on a frenzy of oil hunting diplomacy. China's rulers seldom go anywhere these days without talking oil, while at home in the last year they have unrolled the red carpet in Beijing to dignitaries from all 11 countries in the Opec cartel.

They got results.

China clinched deals to develop fields in Iran.

The red flag came out too, as China opted for a bit of anti-imperialist bonding. Cuba agreed to let China explore its coastal oil fields.


BBC News

Your article actually begins to suggest the real market solution to increasing supply: lift the Cuban trade embargo.

But many oil companies from those countries have expressed reservations about how to turn potential crude oil into product. Cuba doesn't have the refinery capacity, and the biggest potential market -- the U.S. -- is off limits because of the trade embargo.

Essentially, it shouldn't be a matter of "why can't we drill there" but rather "why can't we buy from there"

I'm pretty surprised at the mercantilist attitude Cheney and, I guess, Sununu express here, though. I thought it was pretty universally accepted that oil is a globally traded commodity, and not a matter of "the communists control" or "we control it" as a matter of exclusivity.

[ Parent ]
Drilling Down: John E. Hits Stage 3 of GOP Talking Points | 9 comments
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