Here's a fun game for campaign reporters: Ask Fred Thompson questions. The results are often hilarious:
Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson seemed taken by surprise when asked Tuesday about oil drilling in the Everglades, apparently unaware it's been a major Florida issue.
Before answering, he laughed at the question.
"Gosh, no one has told me that there's any major reserves in the Everglades, but maybe that's one of the things I need to learn while I'm down here," Thompson said after talking over state issues with Gov. Charlie Crist.
Thompson, who has called for seeking U.S. oil resources wherever they exist, was asked by an Associated Press reporter whether that included drilling in the Everglades.
"I'm not going to start out by taking this, that or the other off the table in terms of our overall energy situation," he said.
Upon learning of this, Mitt Romney took an obvious, but I suppose laudable, political swipe at Thompson:
"You're kidding?" said Romney, who also was campaigning in Florida. "Let's take that off the table. We're not going to drill in the Everglades. There are certain places in America that are national treasures and the Everglades is one of those."
Of course, Romney is a huge fan of the idea of drilling in ANWR and off the Gulf Coast of Florida. About the latter he made the cool, sober point that, "If we don't do it, Castro will," according to the DNC. I'm sure that what we have here is a principled disagreement about what, exactly, constitutes a "national treasure."
Oil: enough energy to melt glaciers!
George LeMieux (R-Fla.)
Comments
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caniscandida Posted 12:26 am
21 Sep 2007
Most if not all Republican politicians, and definitely all Republican candidates, are quite clueless about what makes national parks and other reserved areas "national treasures." Aside from finding in those places opportunities for local entrepreneurs to make a profit off of visitors, they do not seem to see why else those lands should be preserved.
On the other hand, there probably are some (how many?) in the Republican electorate who do sincerely appreciate such places as ANWR and the Everglades, and consider it important that they be preserved untouched. Or so I would like to think. What is especially scary, though, is that even these people can be expected to give up their defense of the "treasures," when the candidates start talking about illegal immigrants, Al Qaida, or, as Romney does here in Florida, Castro.
Is Giuliani on record about any of this?
Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.
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stanislaus1 Posted 2:42 am
21 Sep 2007
Hmmm. I just looked at all the other GOP candidates. Guess not.
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stanislaus1 Posted 2:45 am
21 Sep 2007
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