The Washington Independent » venezuela

A Coup Caucus?

David Weigel — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:02:29 +0000

Mark Goldberg identifies the Republicans who are supporting the coup in Honduras, the second break with President Obama’s foreign policy in less than a month.

Florida Republican Connie Mack is circulating a congressional resolution that effectively supports the coup. So far, the Congressional Coup Caucus includes Dan Burton (Republican from Indiana), Jeff Fortenberry (Republican from Nebraska) and Dana Rohrabacher (Republican from California).

The resolution is kind of what you’d expect from the Venezuela-obsessed Mack: “Whereas since his removal, Mr. Zelaya has been flown around the hemisphere by Hugo Chavez’s private jets.”

Psst! Sen. McCain! Venezuela Isn’t in the Middle East!

Spencer Ackerman — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:15:58 +0000

Yes, the candidate of superior foreign-policy expertise delivers again.

Via Aravosis.

As If We Didn’t Know That Bush and Oil Are One

Mike Lillis — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:05:42 +0000

No shocker here.

President George W. Bush announced today that he will release oil from the country’s emergency reserves in the wake of Hurricane Gustav. The reason? Because an oil company asked, of course.

From Reuters:

“Last night we got a request from a company doing business here in Louisiana and we met that request,” Bush told reporters, referring to a request by Citgo Petroleum Corp, which is owned by the Venezuelan state oil company.

“Oil was released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and we will continue to do that upon request by companies,” Bush said after being briefed on recovery efforts in Louisiana.

For months, House Democrats have been calling (to no avail) on the Bush administration to tap part of the petroleum reserves to ease fuel prices at the pump. Following Wednesday’s announcement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had some choice words for a president more receptive to oil companies than to Congress:

By ignoring the needs of consumers but responding to the request of oil companies, it is clear that the Bush-Cheney-McCain energy decisions are made with only one thing in mind — Big Oil.

Not that Pelosi’s plan to use the U.S. emergency cache is anything but a band-aid on a larger problem. But GOP criticism that the resource should be saved for emergencies only rings hollow considering that scores of Republican have spent the last month in Washington screaming from the rafters about the dire need to address the issue with an offshore drilling vote.

What do you call a debate in which neither side has a leg to stand on?