From day one, the Republicans’ approach to the crisis has resembled a mob of howler monkeys tossing poo at firemen trying to put out a fire at the zoo. Last week, Sarah Q. Palin, the GOP’s putative 2012 presidential nominee, piled on by flinging her poo at the president in the guise of offering advice via her Facebook page:
PALIN on Facebook: My experience (though, granted, I got the message loud and clear during the campaign that my executive experience managing the fastest growing community in the state, and then running the largest state in the union, was nothing compared to the experiences of a community organizer) showed me how government officials and oil execs could scratch each others’ backs to the detriment of the public, and it made me ill. I ran for Governor to fight such practices. So, as a former chief executive, I humbly offer this advice to the President: you must verify. That means you must meet with Hayward. Demand answers.
(Note how Palin, the eternal victim, can’t resist picking at the scab of the wound she still bears from being criticized as inexperienced during the 2008 campaign. Recall that she was the mayor of a village of 12,000 people, which left in debt to the tune of millions of dollars, before serving as governor of a state with roughly 600,000 people for 20 months before being chosen, without proper vetting, by John McCain to run as vice president.)
Of course, facts don’t matter to people like Palin, but, in fact,the administration has demanded and received “answers” from BP. What is missing is not answers, it’s solutions.The people in charge understand exactly what is going on. What doesn’t exist is a short-term method for stopping the oil, which is gushing out of the sea floor under immense pressure. The fact that BP was permitted to drill in deep water with no solution to this sort of crisis is directly attributable to Republican “Drill, Baby, Drill” anti-regulatory policies and practices.
PALIN: Please, sir, for the sake of the Gulf residents, reach out to experts who have experience holding oil companies accountable. I suggested a few weeks ago that you start with Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources, led by Commissioner Tom Irwin. Having worked with Tom and his DNR and AGIA team led by Marty Rutherford, I can vouch for their integrity and expertise in dealing with Big Oil and overseeing its developments.
Being vouched for by a pol as corrupt as Palin ought to be a career-killer.
We’ve all lived and worked through the Exxon-Valdez spill. They can help you. Give them a call. Or, what the heck, give me a call.
In an alternate universe, what Pres. Obama should do is force Republicans like Palin to put some skin in the game. He should take her up on her offer and not only, what the heck, call her, he should make her his deputy for dealing with the disaster.
In reality, the situation is far too dire to put someone with Palin’s minuscule brain wattage in charge, but as a political exercise it would be fascinating to see whether Republicans would finally get serious about what is already the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history if the woman who is, sadly, their best and brightest presidential hopeful were suddenly responsible for managing the crisis.
What makes Palin’s “what the heck, give me a call” truly galling is that the real problem with putting Sarah Q. Palin in charge of the disaster, or anything other than her own self-aggrandizement and enrichment, is that “Quitter” is her middle name.
Even in the unlikely event she was able to help in some small way — for example, because Republican power brokers gave her guidance behind the scenes to make her appear less incompetent — odds are she’d walk away before the job was done.
If Palin and the rest of the Republicans really want to help with the crisis, they could start by keeping their poo to themselves.
Not sure Sarah would be of much help. She’s not really as well-informed as one might think. For example, she said that if the U.S. didn’t drill off it’s shores the drilling would would be “outsourced.”
ACES and AGIA, passed while Palin was governor of Alaska, clearly show that she is no energy “expert” and has no real experience in dealing with oil companies and their executives. These two pieces of legislation meant to promote more drilling in AK and the building of an oil pipeline are DOA. Conoco Phillips, BP, and other oil companies have suspended all oil exploration in AK and have reduced oil output. Palin increased the state’s share of oil profits by raising taxes on the oil companies and paid no attention when preparing the state budget back in 2009 to the fact that the price of a barrel of oil fell from @$140 to @ less than $70. She was too busy flying around the country to really pay attention to writing a budget that reflected these changes and ended up frustrating the members of her own political party. What Palin is a real expert on is attacking the president and progressives, being a consummate liar and hypocrite, and depriving weak-minded individuals of their hard earned cash.