“If you thought the country was divided over last fall’s Florida election fight, just wait: It may soon split in precisely the same way over President Bush’s coming energy plan,” Wall Street Journal columnist Gerald F. Seib writes.
As proof, Seib cites the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, which asked respondents whether their first priority was producing energy — even if that meant making some compromises on the environment, or protecting the environment, even if that meant energy supplies would be more limited.
“Given that choice between an emphasis on energy or an emphasis on the environment, Americans divided evenly: 44 percent named energy, 44 percent the environment. (The rest either said they weren’t sure or wanted some of both.)” Seib said.
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Very odd couple
Sens. John McCain and Joseph I. Lieberman have teamed up to introduce compromise legislation to close the so-called “gun-show loophole” that allows purchases without a background check on the buyer, USA Today reports.
McCain, Arizona Republican, and Lieberman, Connecticut Democrat, both lost to George W. Bush in last year’s presidential sweepstakes.
“Their partnership creates some unease among not only Senate leaders trying to maintain party discipline but also White House advisers, who assume neither has President Bush’s interests at heart,” reporter Susan Page writes.
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Up and downey
Some have already connected the dots between Rep. Asa Hutchinson’s appointment as the Bush administration’s drug-control chief and former President Clinton.
As the Arkansas Republican travels to new turf, a vacant congressional seat looms: Could Rep. William Jefferson Clinton be far behind? Clinton is, after all, jobless.
Meanwhile, Hutchinson’s older brother, Republican Sen. Tim Hutchinson, came up with 10 reasons why his sibling would want to join the DEA. The No. 1 reason, Tim Hutchinson said: “He wants to get to know Robert Downey Jr. better.”
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Moon rocks and missile defense
“Hearing liberals complain about the cost of a government program is causing cognitive dissonance among conservatives. That’s what some are using, however, as an argument against the decision by President Bush to pursue a missile-defense system that could save American lives,” noted the Florida Times Union.
Some fret about the system’s efficacy or intangible effects upon traditionally edgy nations.
“But for those who totally supported the Great Society and other monumental debacles to complain that it would cost too much is astounding,” the Times Union continued. “Recall that when one of their own proposed in the early 1960s to put a man on the moon, not a single one asked what it would cost or questioned that it could be done.”
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Gore’s knickers in a twist
It is said that Al Gore is in a snit. Harvard University did not offer him this year’s big commencement speech, even though daughter Sarah is among the graduates.
“Not long after a student in his Columbia University class wrote that the course was ‘more icing than cake’ the former vice president was passed over as commencement speaker at Harvard University, says a source,” MSNBC reports.
“Gore’s daughter Sarah is graduating from Harvard this year, and the insider says Gore was upset that he wasn’t selected to address the graduating class. Gore has spoken at a commencement before and Harvard has a rule that it doesn’t invite speakers back for a second time, but the insider says that the university could easily break its own rules if it wanted to. ‘It was his alma mater and all,’ says the source. ‘He’s really pretty bummed about it.’”
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Sopranos: Pistols and pasta
It is not all pistols and pasta. Rep. Marge Roukema, New Jersey Republican and granddaughter of Italian immigrants, wants other lawmakers to denounce HBO’s blockbuster gangster series “The Sopranos” for “unfair stereotyping” of Italian-Americans.
She plans to introduce a resolution in about two weeks that praises the ethnic group for civic contributions and criticizes TV and movies that portray it solely as hooligans and criminals.
