-Caveat Lector-
Fwd Post:
Wag the Dog part 3
greenspun.com : LUSENET : Grassroots Information Coordination Center (GICC)
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WAG THE DOG,
PART III
Not so long ago, when President
Clinton
wanted to distract the public, he'd
lob
some cruise missiles at terrorists -
or
maybe bomb Baghdad.
Times have changed. But not much.
Clinton's midafternoon announcement
that he'll dip into the nation's
strategic
oil stockpiles came virtually
simultaneously with the White House
release of a log of recent Lincoln
Bedroom guests.
Call it "Wag the Dog - Part III."
(Part I
starred Clinton bombing Sudan and
Afghanistan days after 'fessing up
to his
Monica Lewinsky affair. Part II
featured
bombs over Baghdad in the midst of
impeachment proceedings.)
Sleepovergate, of course, is not
Monicagate. (Besides, the Pentagon
ran
down its cruise missile supply
during
the Bosnia adventure, and still
hasn't
restocked.) So Saddam needn't have
feared fire from the sky meant to
deflect
attention from the Lincoln Log.
This time, Clinton's weapon was the
Strategic Petroleum Reserve - a
571-million-barrel stockpile created
for
use in wartime and other
emergencies.
Yesterday, there was a sure-enough
Clinton emergency - not a war, but a
credibility gap.
The sleepover list - significantly -
wasn't cross-referenced by date, so
it's
impossible to determine who visited
relative to which donation.
But it did include major donors to
the
campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Al
Gore and Democratic campaign
committees. One, S. Daniel Abraham,
reportedly gave $700,000 to the
Democratic National Committee and
$148,000 to the Democratic
Senatorial
Campaign Committee - this year
alone.
And the Clintons' favorite big-money
man, Terry McAuliffe - who ginned up
the original mortgage money for
their
Chappaqua manse - was on the list as
well.
This is all legal. But talk about
chutzpah! After years of funny-money
scandals, misuse of the Lincoln
Bedroom and
a tenure forever known for deceit,
dissembling and Oval Office
extracurriculars, the Clintons once
again
are thumbing their noses at the
public.
Another First Couple might bend over
backward to avoid even an appearance
of impropriety. Not this one.
White House Press Secretary Joe
Lockhart said the sleepovers were
mostly for friends. And "who do you
expect you'd go to [for
contributions] ...
other than your friends."
Who indeed - as if the S. David
Abrahams and Terry McAuliffes of the
world would have two minutes, let
alone $2, for the Clintons if they
lived
anywhere other than 1600
Pennsylvania
Ave.
Hillary and Al Gore both stand to
gain
with this move.
* Hillary, because the oil ploy uses
up
newsprint, ink and air time that
otherwise would have been dedicated
to
sleepover stories.
* Al, because Clinton's oil decision
was
just what Gore called for the day
before.
(What a coincidence!)
But it's still going to be an
expensive
winter in the Northeast.
Some 30 million barrels are to be
drawn from the reserve - a million a
day
on average, compared with the
country's
18-million-barrel-a-day habit.
Talk about a drop in the bucket -
OPEC
can wipe that out by cutting
production
by as little as 4 percent.
And Gore understands this quite
well.
Check out what he said just last
February: "All OPEC would have to do
is cut back a little on the supply,
and
they'd wipe out any impact from
releasing oil from the reserve."
But here's the kicker: The nation's
refining capacity already is running
at
effective full capacity - 94.7
percent,
according to the Petroleum
Institute. So
while the release of
strategic-reserve
oil may have a temporary,
psychological, impact on market
prices,
it will scarcely increase the
nation's
supply of refined petroleum.
Meanwhile, a precious asset in our
national defense is being
squandered.
Better had Clinton bombed Baghdad.
-- ([EMAIL PROTECTED]), September 25, 2000
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