The Political Whore

Republican contender John McCain’s flip-flop on the environment and drilling off the Gulf Coast of Florida for oil has inspired a similar flip-flop by a legion of the state’s ever-independent-thinking GOP officials.

At the top of that list is Charlie Crist — whose hunger to move into Number One Observatory Circle is apparently so strong that he is willing to throw over the beaches of Florida, something that even his predecessor wouldn’t do. As the Florida Democratic Party pointed out late yesterday in an e-mail to media and supporters, Crist told Buzz blog last week that he didn’t like the idea of drilling off Florida’s coast:

At the media availability before Cabinet last week, Gov. Charlie Crist was holding strong against drilling in the gulf. Gov. are you dropping your opposition to drilling for oil off of Florida’s coast?

“I am not,” he replied.

See below for more about Crist’s thoughts on energy and drilling from last Tuesday.

Question: There’s also talk of drilling off Florida’s coast.

Crist: Who’s talking about that?
Question: What do you think about it?

Crist: “No. 1, I don’t like it.

The Dems, however, selectively edited out part of Crist’s answer after that in which the Gov left the door open for drilling:

But nor do I like the price of gas. I don’t think the people of Florida are enjoying it, I know they don’t.

Republican Congresswoman Ginny Brown-Waite, long a fence-sitter on drilling, fired off a statement with this ridiculous analogy in support this morning:

“Today in America we have a new hostage crisis.  American families and the United States economy are being held hostage by this Democrat Congress and Speaker Pelosi’s foolish energy policies,” said Rep. Brown-Waite.  “Speaker Pelosi might believe that most of America is made up of Internet millionaires and left coast liberals who can afford $5 gasoline, but the reality is that everyday Americans across this nation can’t afford even $4 gasoline.  As a mother and a grandmother whose children face the high cost of gas just getting to work and picking up their kids at daycare, I say to Speaker Pelosi, stop holding our domestic energy resources hostage.”

Congressman Connie Mack VXII also flip-flopped as a result of McCain’s pied piper call for drilling. This from the St. Pete Times:

 ”Circumstances have changed, I have changed, and I believe the people of Florida have changed,” he said. “We’re facing a serious energy emergency, and we need to take real steps to bolster our energy independence and security.”

And Sen. Mel Martinez, who previously had opposed drilling:

“I think it’s changed, and I think $4 gas has done that,” said Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla. “And I hear that from people everywhere I go, that this is compelling. People want to see more production; they understand it’s a supply and demand problem.”

Asked if McCain is risking votes in Florida, a state he dearly needs, Martinez shrugged. “The governor seems to have agreed with him … and I’m kind of agreeing with him. So maybe things are changing in that regard.”

So, there, the GOP talking points in a nutshell: the nation favors drilling for oil closer to home; middle class voters are hurting by paying $4 a gallon; only effete liberals and Hollywood/Silicon Valley millionaires can afford expensive gas; and this is a golden opportunity to open up drilling that could foul the nation’s beaches in the interest of keeping gasoline cheap and avoiding the real task of finding ways to decouple our economy from petroleum altogether. Or more directly to the point, to sway voters during a campaign with a plan that has no real, immediate impact on the problem they face.

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