Free Republic

NORFOLK, Va (WAVY.com)--It was supposed to be a news conference by supporters for Democratic Senator Barack Obama. They wanted to blast Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain's plan to give a brief 'gas tax' holiday. When State Senator Louise Lucas showed up in a gas guzzling Hummer to blast McCain for his stand on the oil crisis, the story changed. Lucas said, "While Virginia's families are confronting the reality of gas, the oil companies continue to record record profits." That, from an elected official who showed up in a vehicle that gets some of the lowest gas mileage per gallon. WAVY.com...

RFFM.org Commentary I have a very close friend who worked in the oil industry for many years. Let's call him Joe. Joe started working in the oil fields of foreboding places like North Dakota as a roughneck where temperatures regularly reached forty degrees below zero or more in the winter. In the summer, the weather was not forgiving either. Frequently, the thermometer topped 100 degrees in the shade, but the derricks never shut down because the oil had to keep flowing. In later years, Joe worked his way up into management where he learned the ins and outs of the...

Check out the screencap from Carol Costello's CNN Newsroom segment of this morning on Hillary's gas-tax holiday plan. Costello's message: Clinton's proposal isn't just bad economics. It's not simply Santa Claus politics. No, it could . . . put your life in danger. CAROL COSTELLO: For cash-strapped consumers, any reduction in gas prices would be like, well, like Santa coming into town early—or so it seemed on the stump. View video here.

My two cents say George Stephanopoulos gave Hillary a harder time than Tim Russert did Obama during their respective appearances on This Week and Meet the Press today. Russert never pinned Obama down on exactly what he knew of Rev. Wright's most controversial assertions and when he knew it. Over on ABC, Stephanopoulos twice challenged Hillary to name a single economist who supported her proposal for a gas-tax holiday, and threw in her face the fact that even her big admirer in economist ranks, Paul Krugman of the NY Times, has criticized her over it. In exposing her inability to...

Our colleagues at The Dallas Morning News offered this advice to lawmakers fighting to keep intact complex regional plans to deal with transportation issues in Dallas, Fort Worth and the surrounding counties: "Keep Up the Fight." Good advice. Both the Dallas paper and the Star-Telegram have felt some ownership of this issue since we combined on a joint editorial project in 2003, calling for a regionwide effort to link area cities by rail. But rail is only part of the solution to the serious problem of traffic congestion that is approaching gridlock during parts of the day. Officials in North...