1115.org

(1) Glory Be To God

Glory be to God almighty, he done seen the light again!

That would be John McCain. And he has made rather a pronounced habit of seeing the light on all kinds of issues where he had emphatically staked out a position in the past which now threatens to cost him votes. These are, of course, precious votes that he desperately needs in order not to be totally embarrassed by losing to Obama more badly than any presidential candidate has ever lost before.

McCain’s latest flagrant example of The Politics of Convenience is energy policy. Or offshore drilling, specifically.

This week he faithfully supported George Bush’s call for lifting the moratorium on offshore drilling:

Sen. John McCain said Monday the federal moratorium on offshore oil and gas drilling should be lifted, and individual states given the right to pursue energy exploration in waters near their coasts.

With gasoline prices rising and the United States chronically dependent on foreign oil, the Republican presidential contender said his proposal would “be very helpful in the short term resolving our energy crisis.”

McCain also suggested giving the states incentives, including a greater share of royalties paid by companies that drill for oil, as an incentive to permit exploration.

In late May, just three weeks ago, McCain was opposed to offshore drilling, like he has consistently been for years, regarding it as pointless and ineffective:

On a campaign stop in Greensdale, Wisconsin, the Senator suggested that turning to the nation’s coast for energy needs would be something of a waste in time and effort and do little to resolve America’s broader energy needs.

“[W]ith those resources, which would take years to develop, you would only postpone or temporarily relieve our dependency on fossil fuels,” McCain said when asked about offshore drilling. “We are going to have to go to alternative energy, and the exploitation of existing reserves of oil, natural gas, even coal, and we can develop clean coal technology, are all great things. But we also have to devote our efforts, in my view, to alternative energy sources, which is the ultimate answer to our long-term energy needs, and we need it sooner rather than later.”

(2) In The Short Term, We’ll All Be Dead

Of course, nobody in her right mind has ever accused McCain (or his campaign) of either consistency or coherence.

Yesterday, he was pushing offshore drilling as “very helpful in the short term resolving our energy crisis”, as a way of dealing with the problem “here and now“:

“I believe it is time for the federal government to lift these restrictions and to put our own reserves to use,” he said on Tuesday, “as a matter of fairness to the American people, and a matter of duty for our government, we must deal with the here and now, and assure affordable fuel for America by increasing domestic production.”

However, McCain’s Grand Vizier of Cheerful Inconsistency, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, had just the previous day explained how this makes no damn sense at all:

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a senior advisor to McCain’s campaign, acknowledged in a conference call to reporters that new offshore drilling would have no immediate effect on supplies or prices.

Just to put issues of immediacy in their proper perspective, the federal Energy Information Administration has previously estimated that:
— If the moratorium were lifted today, “production would not be expected to start before 2017″
— Offshore drilling “would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030″

Clearly, McCain’s definition of “short term” is different from the rest of the known universe. I confidently expect to hear him joke one of these days that “in the short term, we’ll all be dead”.

*** Update, 7:27 am ***

At a town hall meeting in Springfield, Missouri yesterday, John the Shameless declared that he “will be more than happy to examine” if he should also reverse his opposition to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

We have been unable to confirm whether McCain intends to put an electronic Suggestion Box on his campaign website called “Proposals for Pandering”. (Maybe this is simply redundant, given that his campaign seems to be perfectly capable of generating more than enough proposals of this kind all on its own?)

It was, of course, only yesterday that Grand Vizier Holtz-Eakin said on the PBS News Hour: “He still opposes drilling in ANWR. It is named a national refuge for a reason. It is an ecologically special place, and he has always felt it should be at the back of the line for any domestic exploration.”