Laura Bush offers slice of reality

First lady Laura Bush, in San Francisco to raise money for GOP candidate Bill Simon, said Wednesday that Americans appear to "want our cake and (want to) eat it too" when it comes to energy development.

Bush, in an interview with The Chronicle, defended the Bush administration's view that at some point in the future, it may be necessary to drill for oil off California's coast. That policy was criticized last week by Simon, who said the president should buy back offshore leases from the oil companies, taking them out of future production.

Simon, for his part, appeared to relish sharing the stage with the popular first lady, and used the occasion to deliver some zingers to Davis -- whose very name elicited lusty boos from the crowd.

Yes!

I'm wondering where Davis would have gotten the money to buy out the oil leases. And where Simon wants to get it.

While we're in this kind of crunch, I don't think we have the bucks for this sort of thing. I have to admit that someone's (was it Carrie_Okie?) comment that oil seeps out naturally and drilling saves us from that type of pollution was convincing. There's no reason to let it go to waste, after all.

This might have been a Simon mistake; the base can't like it all that much, but I doubt any true Greens are going to be impressed. But then again, it was copied straight from the Jeb Bush playbook, so he probably expected more sympathy from the Feds.

Before alleging nepotism on the part of Bush, it's worth noting that California leases would have cost ten times as much (!) to cancel. Florida leases are a lot more affordable, and an oil spill in Florida would ruin their economy, which is based hugely on the beaches and tourism. California has tourism, but it's not as water-based and therefore a great deal less vunerable.

"I refer to Gov. Davis as our first coin-operated governor," Simon quipped to cheers

I see that! But we have seen oblique comments on that from several here on FreeRepublic, especially Grampa Dave!

Wonder if this came off the FreeRepublic threads?

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