Winger Confusion
by digby
I happened to watch Fox news a couple of minutes ago and they were interviewing some "market analyst" who made the observation that the oil spill was pretty bad and that a lot of people on the Gulf would suffer but they would suffer far more if gas prices go up because the Obama administration uses it as an "excuse" to stop offshore drilling.
The Fox news anchor went to say that this issue mattered to him because he owned land on the Florida coast, which is typical of right wingers, who only ever care about things that happen to them personally.
Last night on Bill Maher the allegedly reasonable Ross Douthat since this sort of environmental catastrophe happens only once every 20 years or so on American shores, it may not be a big price to pay for our way of life.
They don't know what to say, although they are all blaming Obama just because. And as I wrote yesterday, it's very hard to defend him on this. He made an idiotic decision to open up offshore drilling, for reasons which are not based in good science or reason, because he trusts "savvy businessmen" despite the fact that they are self-serving greedheads (or themselves deluded.) This is the result.
Maher's rant about this was pretty good:
During the panel segment on "Real Time," Maher pointed to the Gulf Coast oil spill and wondered why less than a month ago, President Obama proposed lifting the ban on offshore oil drilling along much of the East Coast.
While the president's proposal was part of a larger climate bill, for Maher, it was an unnecessary concession to Republicans.
"I understand politics is the art of the compromise and all that," Maher said. "But you know, when you compromise on something like that, that's a bridge too far to me, as a supporter."
There have been a whole lot of bridges too far, for a whole lot of supporters on a whole range of issues. the good news is that it's really worked out politically for the Democrats with Republicans joining them on masse.
You can see the whole segment here.
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