 By Michael Reagan April 26, 2004
"If it is true that gas supplies and prices in America are tied to the American election, tied to a secret White House deal, that is outrageous and unacceptable to the American people,'' Kerry said. Some secret! Bandar publicly announced the deal on the front steps of the White House. It was to the Saudis advantage to keep prices low before presidential elections, they always have, it helps the U.S. economy. And when our economy is good the rest of the world is better off and that helps the Saudi economy. Being able to exploit their oil supplies in that way gives the Saudis political power and it upsets a lot of people to see Prince Bandar using it. They are upset because he was made aware in advance of the administration's plan to attack Saddam Hussein, for example. Such people should ask themselves just who is responsible for giving Prince Bandar all that power. The fact is that the only reason he has all that clout is the amount of oil that he controls that we Americans need to drive our cars and heat our homes. He gets that power because we Americans refuse to open up new avenues of oil exploration. We refuse to open up Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWAR). We refuse to look at the clean burning coal that is available in Alaska. And every time the Congress refuses to open up oil exploration on the continental shelf, to open up oil exploration and start pumping oil in the ANWAR, it empowers Prince Bandar even more. If you want to strip Prince Bandar of all that power, then it is time that we start using some of our own oil and some of our own reserves. That would make us competitive with the Saudis but as long as we aren't competing with them, Bandar is going to continue to get even greater power over us. Who's giving him this power? The environmentalists and their allies in Washington who ride their generous gravy train - the John Kerrys of the world. How can John Kerry complain about Bandar's power - he's in the forefront of those who empowered the Saudi prince. He and his environmentalist friends in Washington have been voting to give him his clout for years while collecting fat campaign contributions from super-rich environmentalist organizations. What excuse does Kerry and his crowd have for preventing us from drilling in ANWAR, for example? They tell us that they want to preserve the "pristine natural beauty" of one of the world's ugliest landscapes - a barren piece of land that makes the surface of the moon look like a tropical paradise. Kerry and his environut allies tell us we should develop new sources of energy. They don't say what they are other than suggesting building acres of windmills or driving expensive hybrid cars. They condemn Americans who drive SUVs, and when somebody is rude enough to point out that Senator Kerry owns one, he says it's not really his - it belongs to his "family." Thanks to Kerry and friends our environmental policies have become suicidal we are holding our economy hostage to imported oil oil supplies over which we have no say as to amounts available or prices. We should have learned that lesson during the Carter administration when the lines at gas stations stretched for blocks thanks to an oil embargo imposed on us by OPEC. We have no guarantee that this will not happen again some day. When it does, be sure to thank John Kerry and his friends.
 mereagan@hotmail.com Distributed to subscribers for publication by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc.
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