Astronomical profits: President Bush’s true base is not the religious Right or knuckle-dragging Unsmart-American voters whom he shamelessly used to get elected. His one and only political base is Big Oil.
– Speaker Hastert
After five years of the Bush presidency, these Big Oil conglomerate/constiuents (read: “donors”) are now reporting profits that are up in the range of 50 percent – literally billions of dollars – over last year.
Whle this is hunky-dory for Mr. Bush, it spells trouble for the president’s allies in Congress, especially in the House, where every member is up for re-election next year. If outrage is allowed to build over the record oil profits while gas prices remain high, the reality of the Republicans’ ties and support for Big Oil at the expense of their nominal base – the above-mentioned Christianists and Stoopid People – could be exposed.
Such a direct link between the GOP and Big Oil might sink in among even the Republicans’ most dimwitted supporters. These people only learn via repetition, and if they begin to blame the GOP every time they fill up their minivans or monster trucks with over-priced gasoline, they could start to feel betrayed by their own leaders. The sense of betrayal might supplant their idolatrous fetish for Ten Commandments statues, their terror of gay marriage – or even their fear of terror. If this were to happen, these poor brainless fools might get so mad at the GOP that they would opt to stay home on election day next year.
It’s almost funny to see House Speaker Dennis Hastert and his corrupt colleagues trying to distance themselves from Big Oil – and it’s always interesting when they choose to propagandize via their house organ, the ultra-rightwing Unification Church-owned Washington Times:
House Republicans, worried about political fallout from the high-profit figures that oil companies are expected to release later this week, will demand that companies pour those profits into refining more oil for the U.S. market in order to lower prices.
At a press conference today, Republicans led by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert will tell the companies to explain why they are making so much money and what they will do to bring down the cost of gasoline.
“Big Oil needs to do its part. Increasing capacity and improving refineries will do much to boost supplies so that consumers do not feel such a big pinch,” Mr. Hastert said in prepared remarks obtained last night by The Washington Times.
“These are extraordinary times that call for extraordinary measures. We expect oil companies to do their part to help ease the pain American families are feeling from high energy prices,” he said.
Oil companies begin releasing figures on their third-quarter financial performances this week, and analysts expect the major corporations to show a nearly 50 percent increase in profits from the same period in 2004.
Mr. Hastert said the companies must tell consumers when new refineries will be built, when an Alaska pipeline deal will be signed and whether companies are “doing everything they can to make sure consumers get a fair deal on energy costs.”
