Ahh, Memories

Join me, won’t you, for a little stroll down memory lane, courtesy of Democratic Underground’s Top 10 Conservative Idiots of the Week:

I'm sure most of you are aware that average gas prices have been topping $2.50 per gallon recently, with San Franciscans recently reporting more than $3 per gallon for regular unleaded…

Now let's take a look at what some of those Republicans had to say in 2000, when gas was around a full dollar cheaper per gallon than it is today:

Rep. Terry Everett: "The Clinton Administration has failed in its duty to develop a policy to deal with our national energy supply and is therefore directly accountable for the higher prices Americans are now paying at the gas pumps."

Dennis Hastert: "House Speaker Dennis Hastert accused the Clinton administration Friday of misleading members of Congress about the causes of skyrocketing gas prices in the Midwest."

Rep. Wally Herger: "Congressman Wally Herger recently denounced the Clinton-Gore Administration's complacency during the current gas price crisis. 'Northern Californians are being held hostage at the gas pump,' Herger said. 'The Clinton-Gore Administration has demonstrated a complete and total lack of leadership in preventing this problem. It is a clear failure of domestic and foreign policy.'"

Larry Kudlow: "The Clinton-Gore administration’s hapless and incoherent management of foreign policy is nowhere as evident as in their bungling on OPEC’s oil-price hike. ... While crude oil prices could drop to $25 per barrel, they will stay well above the average $20 real price of oil registered over the past ten years. And way above the $10 worldwide average marginal cost of producing new oil. Meanwhile gas prices at the pump are likely to be upwards of $2 per gallon well into the summer."

Glenn Spencer: "In recent weeks, gas prices have surged to their highest level in a decade. Prices for home heating oil and natural gas are expected to rise by about 30 percent this winter. ... With the Clinton-Gore administration's policies largely to blame for the pain being felt by consumers, Vice President Gore's camp has pulled out all the stops to shift blame away from his own administration."

Various Repubs: "Representatives Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Menomonee Falls), Tom Petri (R-Fond du Lac), Paul Ryan (R-Janesville), and Mark Green (R-Green Bay) today blasted Energy Secretary Bill Richardson and the Clinton-Gore Administration for their failure to implement a comprehensive energy policy to deal with staggering gas prices Wisconsin consumers continue to face at the pumps."

So, gas is about 60-75% per gallon more at the pump and oil is about 100% more per barrel than it was when these moaning minnies were whining about how much Bill Clinton and Al Gore sucked, but now George W. Bush is the president - why, his shit don't stink. Perhaps they're still waiting for him to "jawbone" OPEC? Either that or they don't care about gas prices now that he's, y'know, got the gays on the run.

Well, who wouldn’t pay $2-$3 a gallon for that? I mean, if we can get this activist judiciary under control, too, I’d be willing to go four, five bucks a gallon!

So, okay, it costs me a lot more to get to and from work, even though inflation is outpacing my earnings, and my contribution to my healthcare costs have increased, even though my deductible’s higher, and it was more expensive to stay warm this winter, even though I set the thermostat lower. And I do get the niggling sense that the war in Iraq has not only contributed to the increased cost of oil, but that we’re probably actually less safe than we were before. But my marriage is protected from the radical homosexual agenda. I can rest assured that there are no fags busily wasting my tax dollars sitting around translating Arabic intelligence. And my mind is at ease knowing that the teenagers in many communities, maybe even in mine!, are learning that sex is all about not having sex, and that if the horny little buggers want to do something other than good, old-fashioned oral, there are plenty of pharmacists who will not give them birth control under any circumstances. Plus, they’ll be better prepared for the real world than ever, now that they will be armed with the knowledge that evolution is just a theory, but creationism is an equally valid theory—critical thinking skills are really important these days.

As evidenced by Mssrs. Everett, Hastert, Herger, Kudlow, Spencer, Sensenbrenner, Petri, Ryan, and Green, above.