Every Republican should be forced to answer these questions about the oil spill

[louis c]

When reporters interview any republican office holder or political operative about the devastating disaster in the Gulf of Mexico they should insist that they answer these questions:

At the Republican National Convention in September of 2008, did you participate in the chant from the floor by the delegates "Drill Baby Drill"? If not, did you agree with that slogan? If you didn't, did you make a public comment against that chant at the time?

Link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o0iJDA7_lY

[gateley]

1. And - How many shares do you have of BP, Exxon Mobile, Shell, Conoco? nt

[lob1]

2. And "How much money did oil companies give you?"

[louis c]

6. That's another good question

but that's for all of them.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. And the all important, "If you were President, what exactly would you be doing?"

[Oregone]

4. Its tough for me these days...

I see the Republicans as representing the old, established interest & money of big oil. The Democrats have embraced an alternate emerging lobby of the "green industry", which will only continue to accumulate vast financial resources as technology advances. How much of this debate has anything to do with honesty, rather than just politics and getting the proper subsidies to the proper campaign donors?

The way I see it...pick your poison. Cheap, blatant wastes of energy will only drive growth & production that will kill everyone anyway. I'm not even sure marking dirty energies as obsolete and ramping up production to implement replacements has any real edge in terms of the environment.

No one wants to debate the human lifestyle and how our economies are structured, which may be part of the reason this false dichotomy between clean energy and dirty energy (new energy and old energy) has advanced so far; honesty may not net anyone money.

[louis c]

5. My objection to drilling

is the strategy involved. When a philosophy is "the government is the problem" or "the government is best that governs least" takes hold we invite greed that leads to disaster.

Banks, Oil companies, Wall Street, Coal Mines, Auto Industries, Food, Pharmaceuticals, Medicine, all of it. you can trace every single disasters to the deregulation of industry and the appointment of overseers that hate the government and love the industry they should be policing. The list is endless.I'm not saying Democrats are innocent, far from it. But when we stray from our principals in order to compromise and become "moderates" we put the country, the party and our philosophy at risk.

We should have held firm with organized labor against outsourcing our jobs. A Republican idea that passed with "moderate" Democratic support. The repeal of Glass-Stigell. A Republican idea and bill, signed into law by a moderate Democrat (Clinton) over the objections of liberal Democrats. Now, Democrats (Obama) moderated his position on off-shore drilling to appease the Republicans and corporations, and once again it bites us in the ass. Stick to the Democratic (FDR) philosophy of governing and we'll be correct nearly every time and as a result, we'll win nearly every election.