Freedom's Watch Attacks Nancy Pelosi -- for High Gas Prices?

Granted, what is politically effective may be intellectually insulting, as a conservative think tank hand put it to me. But this new ad by conservative advocacy group Freedom's Watch charging that House speaker Nancy Pelosi has done nothing to reduce high gas prices prompted a few blinking beats of cognitive dissonance. (President Bush also blamed Congressional Democrats for high gas prices and the faltering economy at a press conference today).

This is the hawkish group whose associates seek it to serve as the political infrastructure not only for getting Republicans elected, but also to rally public support for the sacrifice required for the "long war" that Republican presidential candidate John McCain and Freedom's Watch's board members advocate? Long war and cheap gas just don't seem to go together. The former says: this is hard but necessary. The latter says: it's easy and don't think too hard about it.

This is politics and one is hardly surprised by disingenuousness from any quarter. But of all the ways disingenuous or sincere Freedom's Watch could try to motivate the conservative base, one is struck that it picked this one. Because presumably, if Freedom's Watch gets its way and McCain is elected, there will be another US president inclined to apply military solutions to the Middle East -- a goal reportedly sought by chief Freedom's Watch backer Sheldon Adelson in the case of Iran. And gas prices are only going to go up.

The ad seems another sign that Freedom's Watch under its new executive vice president Carl Forti, a former top National Republican Congressional Committee operative, is increasingly focusing on the calculus of trying to get GOP candidates elected in local House races - no surprise given his NRCC experience. But it raises the question of whether the group intends to focus less on rallying support for the national security arguments fundamental to the presidential race. Likely only for now, until a single Democratic presidential candidate emerges on whom to focus its future attacks.

Update: Here's one Republican Congressional candidate presumably unlikely to get Freedom's Watch's support.

Comments

If you're the leader of your party in Congress, and your party ran on 'doing something about high gas prices' in the last election, which Pelosi and friends did, then you're fair game when gas prices are even higher than they were when you ran against them.
Especially so when you gained control of the Congress in said election, running on this and other issues like getting the hell out of Iraq.

You make it a campaign issue, you win the Congress and two years later things are worse instead of better, what can you expect?

Yeah, maybe your opponents didn't solve the problem either, but 'that's politics' when you control the Congressional agenda.

Posted by: A Little History Is A Good Thing on 04/30/08 at 11:31 AM Respond

A lot of folks now appear to relish tilting at the Tooth Fairy, McCain and Clinton included.

Do they believe it scores points with voters? Not with this one.

We have a supply gap and resulting higher prices. Easy-to-get fossil energy's been gotten. Oil producers are keeping more of the stuff for themselves, India and China are pushing up demand, the Saudis have inflated their reserves, and oil's reserve currency, the dollar, is losing value. Only Obama has come close to leveling with Americans about this. Most of us have been profligate in our use of "cheap" fossil energy, which if you really understand energy, should never have been "cheap" to begin with.

My advice: Don't vote for anyone in any race who doesn't make energy the priority it needs to be and who thinks we can continue business as usual.

Posted by: Lagtime on 04/30/08 at 12:17 PM Respond

It's Bush and his buddies's faults. He's attempting to black-mail them into drilling in perserves. You do know bush owns oil interests, don't you? Anyone clever enough to find out how much income that raked in for him last year?

Posted by: Nancy on 04/30/08 at 2:38 PM Respond

bush is a gas and oil man from texas,he is profitting from the high prices at the pump,do you honestly believe that if he's making money hand over fist, that he's gonna do anything about our gas prices?hell no,hes gonna sit back and laugh all the way to the bank

Posted by: mary kay on 05/01/08 at 9:08 AM Respond

PAY AT THE PUMP ?!....OR GAY AT THE PUMP ?!

Posted by: BOBBY DECKER on 05/01/08 at 9:50 AM Respond

PAY AT THE PUMP ?!....OR GAY AT THE PUMP ?!

Posted by: BOBBY DECKER on 05/01/08 at 9:50 AM Respond

Did you guys see that over at 98.7 FM they are giving away FREE gas?
Four times a day! How helpful is that at a time like this? Go win yours at http://www.987fm.com

Posted by: Dave on 07/06/08 at 3:33 AM Respond