1115.org

After being routinely criticized for his sleepy response in the initial aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, President Bush has been doing his best to regain his image as the tough, decisive commander-in-chief who shines in moments of crises. Besides the continual trips/speeches/press conferences/photo ops made from the Gulf Coast, he made a big point to personally monitor the course of Hurricane Rita from…er…the NORAD bunker in Colorado. No one’s quite sure why Colorado was a better Presidential staging area than, say, the White House. Maybe the president just wanted to play a round of tic-tac-toe or “Global Thermonuclear War” against the WOPR.

Don’t get us wrong—disasters such as major hurricanes require a high level of involvement from the President, and its certainly better to see Bush (belatedly) trying to fix things instead of not trying at all. It’s even better to see him talk about issues that would previously have been inconceivable for him, such as fighting poverty or reducing energy consumption. But before we start throwing rose petals like the imaginary Iraqis of early 2003, it’s helpful to remember that there is a mile of difference between words and deeds, and this president has continually come down on the “words” side of that equation. No Child Left Behind? Great catchphrase, underfunded program. Healthy Skies Initiative? I’m sure those polluting industries appreciate their relaxed regulations. The President devoted about 15 seconds of a 20 minute speech to mention poverty? Great, though that doesn’t quite fit with his decision to rescind minimum wage rules for contractors or the fact that poverty numbers have increased under his watch.

So excuse us if we’re a little cynical about all the attention given to Bush’s recent out-of-character statement, where he (gasp!) called on Americans to conserve gasoline and drive less:

“We can all pitch in,” Mr. Bush said. “People just need to recognize that the storms have caused disruption,” he added, and that if Americans are able to avoid going “on a trip that’s not essential, that would be helpful.”

Mr. Bush promised to dip further into the government’s petroleum reserve, if necessary, and to continue relaxing environmental and transportation rules in an effort to get more gasoline flowing.

We can all pitch in, huh? I wonder what the cost is of jet fuel from Washington DC to Colorado. Or Crawford, Texas for that matter. Sarcasm aside, while it’s nice that the President wants us to pitch in, mild consumer-level conservation is about all that he is willing to suggest. You might remember that the recent energy bill, which seemed to mostly exist to give already-rich oil and power companies billions of dollars in tax rebates, contained no language about conserving energy or any attempt to raise fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks. You might also remember back during the bad old days of California’s energy crisis, when Dick Cheney said that conservation “cannot be the basis of a sound energy policy” and the government refused to intervene in the situation, which was later found to have more to do with greedy power companies than any actual energy shortage. Words of conservation are nice, but this administration’s priorities have always been swayed toward the producer rather than the consumer; Jamie Pressley will win an Oscar for her performance in Torque before this group adopts any legislation that pushes energy conservation beyond a mere suggestion. In fact, the Republican leadership in Congress plan to solve the energy issues raised by Katrina and Rita with—surprise, surprise—even more tax cuts for energy producers who were already getting about $11 billion back from the taxman. Of course, that’s small potatoes when you consider that ExxonMobil will post a quarterly profit in the neighborhood of $10 billion, more than any company in history.

Bush’s call for gasoline conservation, absent any actual plan to reduce oil usage in this country, is nothing more than a grab for positive press coverage in an otherwise-difficult time. It’s a proven formula—when Bush gave his prime-time speech from deserted New Orleans earlier this month, all he had to do was mention poverty and people were spinning it as some kind of grand initiative. Talk about the soft bigotry of low expectations! We might as well cheer a surgeon who treats a gunshot wound by slapping a band-aid on it and giving the patient a Budweiser tallboy.

If you read beyond the headlines, it’s about as expected.