Newt Gingrich - Old Man, Old Tricks

It's all the "liberals" fault. That's the Newt Gingrich mantra.

Who's Newt Gingrich? Well, Newt and Gingrich are funny names, and may remind you of a movie about trolls, but but in case you've forgotten he's the serial adulterer, wife abuser, hypocrite who single-handedly destroyed bi-partisan government in the United States.

He's been gone for awhile, writing novels about things he's never done and places he's never been and a military life he's never experienced (with an historian "co-author," of course!).

Unfortunately, he is back in the news, still married, I think to his third or fourth wife...it's hard to remember the details of the lives of these Republican "family values" people. And he's still putting out his usual crap. Human Events.com (a right-wing propaganda site) published an article by ol' Newt titled "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less."

It's tripe as usual. Most of what he has to say in this article is flat-out wrong and quite stupid. Every once in awhile I ask myself why so-called conservatives are always jumping on the bandwagon with those who want to destroy our national forests, our waterways, our air quality, our oceans. Then, I remember that it's not so much they want to destroy these things, it's more that they just don't give a damn, especially if their corporate buddies are able to increase their bottom line.


"Liberals" in Congress are to blame for the rising cost of gasoline, says Newt, totally ignorant or oblivious as to the real reason for high oil prices--the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But it's the "liberals" who blocked what Newt says is "environmentally sound production of U.S. energy..." and by that he's referring to drilling in various places and digging out oil shale in Colorado. Now when a "conservative" serial liar like Gingrich starts talking about "environmentally sound production," sane people should run in the opposite direction as fast as possible! And those living in the Rocky Mountains should take up their arms as you can bet your bippy that Newt's plan is gonna knock down their Rocky Mountain high!

Newt also thinks that Mr. Bush did good in Saudi Arabia when he went begging his Arab buddies to pump more oil, but Newt's upset 'cause the "liberals" made fun of Bush on his knees in the Saudi desert. And even though the Saudis laughed at Mr. Bush, actually made fun of him, and then said, "OK, we'll pump 300,000 more barrels per day," which won't, of course, make a bit of difference to anyone, Newt thinks it's wonderful, because "it won't make" the problem worse!


Well, let's hear one liberal response. (Thank god for liberals!). The first thing that would have to be done to give Newt's plan a snowball's chance in hell of working, is block the Lieberman-Warner climate bill which is set to reduce greenhouse gas emissions between 2008 and 2050 to such an extent that we'll be able "to avert catastrophic global warming."

Newt doesn't mention anything about that. He just wants to "drill here, drill now," which he thinks will mean we'll pay less for gas, as if the cost of gasoline was our biggest problem, and global warming is a side issue!

David Roberts, writing for Vanity Fair, says that Newt's notion of lowering gas prices by drilling everywhere now, like off US coasts, in the Gulf of Mexico, in northern Alaska, and in the Rockies, is just plain "false."

"According to the Energy Information Administration, the U.S. has about 21 billion gallons in proven oil reserves--about 3 percent of the world's total. Even if we started drilling today, it would be 10 years before we got substantial production out of those fields, and 20 years before peak production."

But even more enlightening and damaging to Newt's case is this: "Right now, Saudi Arabia is sitting pretty, enjoying sky-high oil prices. They are ignoring our entreaties to pump more because they like these supply constraints just fine (and they probably couldn't pump any faster if they wanted to). Say we start pumping those reserves out into the world market. What's to stop Saudi Arabia from dialing back production a little bit, so supply (and prices) stay roughly the same? Answer: nothing. U.S. domestic oil prices rise to meet world prices, and those prices are outside our control.

"In short," says Mr. Roberts, "The U.S. cannot affect oil or gasoline prices in any significant way by drilling more oil."


Newt may know all this, or he may not. What he does know is that their are numerous corporations anxiously waiting in the wings for approval to gear up their money-making machines and get busy digging and drilling and destroying the environment in the process. And for a number of years now, "good conservatives" like Newt have believed that aiding and abetting such corporate chicanery is their highest calling.

It's time we started taking a different route in this country.