Willing To Drill Anywhere

Today in Florida, Republican presidential hopeful, Fred Thompson was asked by a reporter if he would drill for oil in the Everglades, he said wouldn't rule it out. Did your eyes blink rapidly when you read this? It confused me for many reasons. Back in 2002 the family that owned the drilling rights for large chunks of the Everglades were planning on drilling about 1,500 holes and blowing stuff up with dynamite in about 40 locations. Though a red state, this was not a happy thing for most Floridians and all studies indicated that the amount oil located beneath the Everglades would be the equivalent of two days worth at current US consumption. It would mean a crap load of money for the family who owned the rights, but not much of a benefit in the grand scheme of things for the rest of us, especially if the price is the Everglades. Jeb was up for re-election that year and he had a very unhappy constituency. So, in a shameless move to help his brother Jeb, President Bush had the Department of the Interior buy back the drilling rights. It was straight up nepotism, but the end result was the protection of the Everglades so I can bitch too much there. So, whether or not to drill in the Everglades is rather a moot point, a fact of which I'm sure the reporter was well aware. Thompson said he had no idea there had been any controversy. I can understand an everyday non-Florida citizen missing this slice of history, but Thompson was a Tennessee senator at the time. You would think a politician would have some clue what's going on in the news. Ok. So Thompson is a politician who doesn't follow politics. Ok. I'll move on. I don't think Thompson would ever seriously consider drilling in the Everglades, but like most politicians he's just cranking out what he thinks people want to hear. Apparently Thompson thinks people want to hear their politicians are willing to destroy the habitat of numerous endangered species in order to reap an insignificant benefit. Though I disagreed, I could understand the reasoning behind the rightwing concerning drilling in Alaska. It's large, frozen and many of the residents wanted it. But the Everglades? Come on! Even the archconservative Bush spawn realized that most people, even republicans, would not be down with the rape of the Everglades. Now I'm just trying to figure out if Thompson just went a little too far trying to stick to the Republican message of "drilling good, environment bad", or if the rightwing has gone far into crazyland that the destruction of all things natural, whether there is an actual benefit or not, has become part of the party line message. In either case, he should print up, "Willing to Drill Anywhere", bumper stickers.