urbanmennonite.com

Charlie Crist, the very single (nudge, nudge, wink, wink), very tan Florida governor has decided that, despite being against offshore-drilling, he is now actually for it.  Because McCain is for it.  And so is George W. Bush now that Jeb isn’t governor anymore.

Crist is probably just selling himself as a VP candidate (sorry, you’re going to lose to the not-so-tan, not-so-single Minnesota governor).  But the problem is that Florida had very good reasons for opposing it before and frankly, despite $140/bbl oil and $5/gallon gasoline, those reasons are still very valid.

Andrew Leonard at Salon has again summed up the arguments for and against offshore drilling, making the very clear and very cogent argument that  in energy policy, as in so many things these days, the Republicans are no longer the true conservators of anything:

But what is the truly “conservative” position on offshore drilling, or energy policy in general? Recklessly exhausting all available resources now, and letting the future take care of itself — or conserving those resources, investing carefully for the future, and thinking about the long term? Where does prudence reside — in attempting to shave a few pennies off of gas prices now, or on planning on how to cope with high gas prices for the foreseeable future?

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1. Why this election matters, part III or how it should be OK to tell
2. Why this election matters, or how I’m expanding my tuna casserole repertoire
3. Why this election matters, part IV or how I bought myself an insurance company today