Tabloid Boy

According to George Korda's online column for the Knoxville News Sentinel today, Congressman John Duncan, Jr. blames environmental groups for driving up the price of gas. Link:

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/may/05/korda-rep-duncan-environmental-groups-driving-gaso/ 

If there's a more blatant instance of killing the messenger extant, I haven't come across it yet. It's hard to know where to begin addressing this nonsense.

First, Duncan, who -- to his credit -- voted against the invasion of Iraq, apparently sees no connection between the turmoil in the Middle East which this country helped to foment and the escalating price of a barrel of oil. There's talk now of $200/barrel oil. Last time I checked, the Sierra Club was not a voting member of OPEC.

Duncan has been a member of Congress since 1988. What has he done during those two decades to address the stuck-in-the-mud CAFE standards for automobiles? He had a chance to make an impact last December but disdained the opportunity.

Duncan voted "no" to the  Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. The bill eventually passed -- no thanks to Duncan -- and requires average fuel economy for automobiles to rise to 35 mpg by 2020.

Duncan voted against H.R. 5351 ("To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide tax incentives for the production of renewable energy and energy conservation"). It wasn't a perfect bill (none are) but what were Duncan's reasons for opposing it? See http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR05351:@@@D&summ2=m& for the details.

It seems that Rep. Duncan is missing a vital accessory from his office -- a mirror. He needs to find one and take a close look at himself before blaming environmental groups for high fuel prices.

Driving home from a Town of Farragut function tonight I came up behind a vehicle with a scrolling LED message beneath its license plate. "Yes, God loves you," it scrolled in dazzling red letters...

On the back of an SUV.

I could only conclude that although God loves me He doesn't give a damn about the environment or the danger His vehicle poses to other drivers. (Sigh.)

More reader commentary, from "crazy dave:"

"Call me crazy, but...I think you are being a bit unfair in not giving the commissioner credit for having any independent thought. Do you not think it's possible she had valid reasons/concerns of her own for not voting to put the charter amendments on the ballot? At any rate, there are only 2 ways to vote - yea or nay - and I feel pretty certain we would not be having this     "conversation" if her votes were the same as those who supported the charter  amendments. Ragging on Scoobie and Lumpy is all the rage, after all."

Touche, Dave, and perhaps I misjudge Ms. Davis. Actually, the initial post was only to point out what seemed an incongruous alignment. But your "yea or nay" point is well-taken.

At the April 28, Knox County Commission meeting, the votes of these four commissioners on the proposed charter amendments were identical: Elaine Davis, Ivan Harmon, Scott Moore and Paul Pinkston.

Davis, nominally a Democrat, lost to Finbarr Saunders in the February primary contest for Seat A in the Fourth District.