Nancy Pelosi, you ignorant slut...

CNN link.

No, Bush and Cheney aren’t the cause of $3/gal gas, you nitwit. I know you want to blame Bush and the Republicans for rising gas prices, but just how stoooopid do you think Americans are? Give it a rest-- you sound like an idiot.

The Republicans are going to get “blamed” for high gas prices just as every incumbent party gets cheered/blamed for economic news. But if you make it sound like some crazy conspiracy theory, I won’t be surprised if you end up undercutting the very message you’re trying to get across. Americans are pissed off at Bush, especially about the war. Rant on about the situation in Iraq, because that is something Bush and Cheney caused, but don’t insult my intelligence or the intelligence of the average American either.

Hell, I even suggested in a GD thread a few months ago that the Dems propose a windfall profits tax on oil companies as a way to make political hay out of the current situation, even though I think it’s a dumb thing to do. Make the Republicans sweat by defending the huge profits being raked in by “Big Oil”, and the gigantic compensation packages given to oil executives. There are so many better ways to attack Bush and the Republicans then by trying to convince us Bush and Cheney are secretly manupulating oil prices. Show a little creativity!!

John Mace, you ignorant slut. You just don’t understand these things, do you?

Bush sends as much money as he can to his oil cronies. Cheney sends another large chunk to Haliburton. The rest becomes tax cuts for the rich.

I’m curious as to how we can conclude anything about Ms. Pelosi’s alleged sexual promiscuity from her lack of economic acumen.

I don’t know. If we were to look at the Bush Administration’s policies that had a measurable impact on gas prices, make two columns, one for “bumps price up” and the other for “keeps price low,” what would we find?

It might be that the “keeps price low” column would win: maybe lack of regulation and increased supply would keep prices low. On the other hand, maybe lack of oversight and increased hostility from oil-producing nations is bumping the price up.

It’d be interesting to see.

John, are you suggesting that she’s about to go broke underestimating our intelligence?

Daniel

What about those secret energy policy bits that Cheny refused to disclose and most probably had direct input on from the very companies it was supposed to regulate?

Cite.
Cite.
Cite.

Maybe we should wait until all the facts are in :smiley:

“so-and-so, you ignorant slut” is an old SNL catchphrase. I don’t think John Mace was using it literally.

The quote is not good, and we know she’s dumbed it way down to get the best soundbite. That said, instability in the Middle East is one of the factors that has raised oil prices, and the pointless, open-ended invasion of Iraq has been a big contributor to that instability.

On thinking about this further, it seems to me:

  1. Bush and Cheney, as oil men, have implemented policies that unfairly benefit oil companies;
  2. Bush and Cheney, as idiotic foreign policy masters, have implemented policies that have caused gas prices to rise; but
  3. Bush and Cheney, as oil men, have not (to the best of my knowledge) implemented policies that have caused gas prices to rise.

So I disagree with Pelosi, absent unexpected evidence to back up her claim.

Daniel

Man,

I check in expecting a story of heartbreak, of personal loss: love for a slut.

Instead I pit the pit title…

…and I pit the OP for typing before thinking.

Cause - invasion
Effect - high oil prices

So you’re saying that Bush has no blame for Iraq pumping at half of prewar capacity, and Iran causing instability in the region? A total lack of diplomacy in Chad, Nigeria, and all over South America? From where I sit, it certainly appears Bush’s bumbling has had a rather direct effect on prices.

But you are right. The multi billion dollar giveaway to the oil companies has no effect on supply and demand, that’s just pure and simple cronieism. It doesn’t take an economist to recognize that.

No, just a partisan moron, of which there is no shortage either on the SDMB or in the House.

And, to give Pelosi’s rant more attention than it deserves, adjusted for inflation, the price of oil is roughly what it was during the Carter debacle. So it doesn’t seem that peanut farmers do any better than oil men.

But Pelosi is an economic illiterate. Or a “progressive”, which seems to be roughly synonymous.

Regards,
Shodan

-1-

Please, this doesn’t have much of anything to do with Bush and Cheney. At most they affected the timing of this inevitable event.

We are reaping what we’ve sown over the last 30 years. We went through an oil crisis, gas shortages, high prices, the works in the 70’s, and decided to do exactly nothing to wean ourselves off of gas guzzling behemoths. We only care about energy prices enough to whine about it, not enough to actually buy fuel efficient cars in quantity, not enough to give up our 3,000 sqft McMansions for more economical homes, not enough to wear sweaters in winter and be judicious about A/C in the summer. Oh yeah, we’ll whine, but god forbid we change our behavior.

Are you (and others repeating a similar meme…namely the slut Pelosi :stuck_out_tongue: ) saying that the Iraqi invasion if the sole or major cause of gas being $3/gal? Can you back that up? I would think the fact that India and China are buying more oil than ever and that world oil demand is so high would be at least a tiny factor in the price…and that this is disconnected from the Iraqi invasion. Oh sure, the instability in Iraq is probably a factor in oil speculation and is probably having a real effect on the price…but can you make an arguement showing how gas prices wouldn’t have risen if the US had never set foot in Iraq?

As far as the OP goes, I’d say that Pelosi probably DOES know that Bush et al have only the most peripherial impact on the price of oil being high (mostly in the non-zero impact Iraq has had on the price per barrel and on production and speculation). However, she is playing to her base and preaching to the converted…and they DO think stuff like this. Just look at this thread and the posts that will follow on for confirmation. :wink:

-XT

And all this bumbling just took effect in the last 2 weeks? Was Bush’s bumbling responsible for the big drop in gasoline prices only a few months ago? Is Bush only responsible when the price goes up?

But note that Pelosi doesn’t even try to make the argument that the Iraq war has caused a spike in oil prices. No, it’s because Bush is an oilman! Cause and effect, I tell you. Ms. Pelosi and her husband made a fortune in SF real estate. I suspect she’s the reason Bay Area housing prices are the most expensive in the nation. Cause and effect!!!

But that’s not what wins the day in Washington, so why should she or any other Democrat bother with creativity when it obviously doesn’t translate into votes? I agree with the premise that her inference is misleading, childish, paranoid, and smacks of conspiracy theory. Which is why I completely support it: the Democrats need to steal from the Republican playbook if they’re going to even begin the long, slow crawl out of the gutter in November. And if half of everything that comes out of Nancy Pelosi’s mouth between now and then is a lie, well, that still makes her at least twice as honest as the administration.

The truth-in-politics ship has sailed, my friend. The Great American Lie is the basic unit of currency in beltway rhetoric. Bush was an oilman (ok, well, he tried to be, anyway); he should be suffering by association. Forget the fact that every hole he ever drilled was dry; he’s one of them. Not fair? You’re damn right it’s not fair! 8 years of Bush-Cheney and Conservative control of all three branches of government isn’t exactly fair, if you ask me…but tell that to a Republican and they’ll just point to the electorate that put them there. And they’re right.

Bottom line: anyone who’s stupid enough to think Bush is relishing these high oil prices at his own political expense should be exploited for the greater good. Why should stupid American voters be fair game for only one party?

You know, I very rarely open Pit threads about politicians. They all say stupid things all the time. It’s just that I happened to hear a clip on NPR this morning with Pelosi giving that quote, above. Had she something like you posted, Marley, I wouldn’t have batted an eye. But this insistance that Bush and Cheney, as “oilmen”, are the direct (and we would presume sole) cause of the recent spike in gas prices is just so goddam ignorant, I couldn’t help myself.

I’m not even sure that Iraq’s reduced output makes all that much difference. Iraq is actually pretty small potatoes on the oil market. They have the 3rd largest proven reserves, but even at pre-war levels, they’re pretty far down the list of oil producing countries. If they suddently got back to pre-war levels, the price would drop for a year or two, and then go right back up again as the hungry energy consuming nations caught up with that new level of output. Iraq’s oil infrastructure was crumbling before we invaded, and I doubt their production would be growing. The world has a growing demand for oil, and unless the world is pumping out more and more every year, keeping up with demand, the price is oging to keep going up.

Her words weren’t intended for you though John. They were intended for the fanatic converted who actually think Bush IS helping ‘big oil’ raise the price at the pump so they can all get rich and stick it to the little guy (and that its a toss up as to which thing gives them more pleasure). You know as well as I do that there ARE plenty of folks who think this…hell, not all of them are from the loony left either.

Now, how this will play with the more rational population (if they exist :stuck_out_tongue: ) I couldn’t say…personally I think it may come back to bite her squarely on the ass, but who knows?

I’m guessing that its major impact is in the speculation market for oil futures. The instability may be a factor in driving the price higher I suppose. As you say though I think the impact is pretty small potatoes all things considered. The other factors that are impacting the price of oil are ones we’d have with or without our Iraqi adventure…and have very little to do with Bush being an ‘oil man’, or even with ‘Big Oil™’ out to chinger the little man…

:wink:

-XT

Nah, without Iraq the moderates would have won elections in Iran and we’d have been in the process of normalizing relations, rather than facing a nuclear crisis which drives up the cost of oil.