Two weeks and a 14-car motorcade later...............

[CatWoman]

Bush, following and flip-flopping, takes a stand on gas prices


It's the sort of thing that happens when your approval rating starts flirting with 30 percent: A few paragraphs into a story on your plan to combat high gas prices, the New York Times reveals that you announced the plan after taking a 14-car motorcade across town and past an Exxon station where the cheapest gas was going for $3.29 a gallon.

George W. Bush came out fighting on gas prices today, but the man once hailed as a strong leader came across as a follower instead. Two weeks ago, Senate Democrats asked Bush to join them in supporting legislation aimed at preventing and prosecuting price gouging in the energy markets. After seeing the polls and hearing complaints from constituents during their spring break, Republicans in the House and Senate returned to Washington Monday and immediately asked Bush to order the attorney general and the Federal Trade Commission to open investigations into price-gouging allegations.

The president finally took up the call today, saying that he was directing the Department of Justice to work with the FTC and the Energy Department to investigate any "manipulation or cheating related to the current gasoline prices." But even as he demanded that oil companies treat American consumers fairly, he took steps to make it easier for them to profit by temporarily suspending certain environmental regulations.

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/

[rkc3]

1. That's not flip-flopping, that's strong leadership.

End sarcasm.

Strong leadership would recognize a problem and try to fix. Like forseeing that a prolonged war in the ME would drive up oil prices and working to relieve our dependence on oil - unless that was the plan in the first place.

I'm surprised no politician has stepped up to say that we're the greatest country in the world and we should be able to figure out a way to improve fuel economy or public transportation.

[LSparkle]

2. A strong leader would set a good example

and quit flying all over the country to give his speeches. If average workers can TELECONFERENCE then so can he -- save the gas, you a**!

[AndyA]

3. This is called covering your ass.

Bush knows the American people aren't going to tolerate these gas prices for long. He's been forced into the corner on this issue by Repugs running for election this year, and by the oil companies he's indebted to.

So, he's going to appear strong to the people by investigating the oil companies, and to keep them happy, he's going to lift regulations so they can still make money.

Of course, he isn't considering the one factor he should be most worried about: Mother Nature. She'll get even with an even more horrendous hurricane season this year. Just in time for November elections.

Karma sucks, Bush. And it's coming to bite you and your Republican cronies on the butt! Look for its arrival in November.

[obreaslan]

4. I'm the DECIDER!!!!!!! I'm the DECIDER!!!!!

Waaaahhhhh!!!! I'm the DECIDER!!!!!!!! Waaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!

{/childish presidential tantrum}

[TahitiNut]

5. Junior's cynical rhetoric is over 25 years late.

It's like he dusted off some of Jimmy Carter's policy papers and sprinkled them into his stump speeches. There has not been a single funding or policy initiative that this regime has taken in the directions he's citing. As far as I'm concerned, this is a "do-nothing" ploy ... no excess profits tax, no price-fixing or price-gouging investigation, nothing.

Even "NASCAR Dads" are beginning to comprehend the hole we're in - no alternative mass transit infrastructure and even our electrical power generation has become increasingly fossil-fuel-based. The recent urban trasit projects have been mere overpriced window-dressing. Instead of an improved and updated regional/national rail system, this is the regime that has killed off another 20% of Amtrak!