CHEAP GAS….Remember the flap a couple of weeks ago about “foreign leaders” supporting John Kerry? Kerry wouldn’t name names, but there was much glee on the RNC website over the fact that North Korea’s Kim Jong-il was apparently one of them.
That was just a joke, of course, but on the other side of the aisle we know at least one foreign country that’s seriously eager for George Bush to be reelected: Saudi Arabia. Yes, the same Saudi Arabia that was home to 15 of the 9/11 hijackers and the same Saudi Arabia that has shown disturbingly little recognition that this is a problem. Acccording to Bob Woodward, Saudi Arabia is so eager for Bush to be reelected that they’re planning to help out his campaign by lowering oil prices a few months before the election.
Now, if you want to take the position that Bob Woodward is full of shit, fine. But I sure wasn’t expecting a substantive defense of this from conservatives. But here’s Michael Graham over at The Corner:
If the Democrats want to argue that having President Bush in office means oil-rich nations will try to help out the American economy, go right ahead. If these nations were driving gas prices up in order to punish Bush, you can bet Teresa Heinz Kerry’s dead husband’s last dollar that the Democrats would be holding Bush responsible.
Instead, they?re helping a brother out. What’s the prob?
A couple weeks ago, John Kerry was blaming the president for high gas prices: “This administration has done nothing with OPEC to reduce gas prices.? Not only would this be a meaningful rebutal to that charge, but it would show that the administration was thinking about this issue months ago and planning ahead for the increase in prices. Moreover, this puts to rest the notion that Bush can?t work with our allies to get things done.
Yep, it’s just the president working with our allies in the best interests of our country. What’s the prob?
Elsewhere in the conservative blogosphere this revelation seems to have merited simple silence. Maybe they just don’t believe Woodward. But surely the fact that Saudi Arabia ? a country that has been demonized regularly by conservatives ? is now said to be actively aiding George Bush’s reelection is at least worthy of comment, isn’t it? What would be the reaction if Woodward reported that Jacques Chirac had agreed to hold up a new UN resolution until November, just to make Bush look bad?
UPDATE: James says he was just kidding. Haven’t heard from Michael.
