“We’ve had problems with car design, but you don’t stop driving”

[babylonsister]

http://washingtonindependent.com/83793/graham-still-pushing-for-expanded-offshore-drilling

Graham Still Pushing for Expanded Offshore Drilling
By Aaron Wiener 5/3/10 12:14 PM


As oil from the April 20 rig explosion continues to approach the Gulf Coast, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is not backing down from his advocacy of expanded offshore oil drilling.

“We’ve had problems with car design, but you don’t stop driving,” Graham said Friday, according to The Greenville (S.C.) News. “The Challenger accident was heart-breaking but we went back to space. The biggest beneficiaries of this proposal to stop drilling would be overseas oil interests, OPEC and regimes that don’t like us very much.”

Graham’s comments come as gulf state politicians from both parties, including Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and Gov. Charlie Crist (R-Fla.), urge President Obama to shelve his proposal for expanded drilling, at least until the current crisis is resolved and investigated.

Graham, who was one of three senators working on comprehensive climate legislation but dropped his support to protest the prioritization of immigration reform, also explained his shift on the climate bill to the News:

I’ll take political risks, but I’m not stupid. I would never have engaged with energy and climate discussions as seriously as I have believing that on the Friday before the Monday rollout we’d be talking about an immigration bill that Harry Reid was going to bring up. That’s toxic politics.

[emulatorloo]

1. Does Lindsey Graham have an "off button?" I swear if these people would stop talking

constantly and think a little bit, we might find a way out of this mess.

[Ganja Ninja]

2. Lets see what he has to say in a month or two or three ...

when the oil is still washing up.

[G_j]

8. yep

probably won't be saying much at all

[Tempest]

3. But you stop building the car until the problem is fixed

The same is true for drilling.

[liberal N proud]

4. Specially if you are driving a Toyota

The oil companies minions are coming out in full force to defend their practice.

[ejpoeta]

5. true, you don't generalize and assume all cars are flawed because of one design flaw....

but you will be wary of said car until someone can prove it is safe. and if i had a vehicle that say had brakes that weren't working and i drove it anyway and caused an accident.... who would get blamed for that? who would have to pay for any damage??? could i say, well, you don't stop driving because of brakes that aren't working right, right!!?!! yeah, that wouldn't fly.

[KansasVoter]

6. Some people here are using the same logic! Amazing!

[G_j]

7. sounds just like posts I've been reading here today nt

[zipplewrath]

9. He's right

Okay, yeah, I'm being a bit provocative. But I'd agree with his analogy except for one, small tiny little detail. If we just found out that we had problems with car designs, we wouldn't stop driving. We'd also fix the car designs. We knew 30 friggin' years ago we had a problem with oil that wasn't going to be solved by drilling for more oil. But that's exactly what we've done. Carter tried to move us towards a different future, but Saint Ronnie knew better and now we find ourselves, 30 years later, in the same stupid boat. And oh, by the by, we're trashing the planet on a.... well.... planetary scale in doing so.

We've been wrong for 30 years. Obama was wrong for advocating a continuation of this policy. It's gotta end. It's gotta end soon. We have an opportunity to be transformational here AGAIN. Let's not squander it, again, just advancing old GOP ideas.