Saturday, February 24, 2007

Hannity vs. Gore

In a moment of temporary insanity, I watched a segment of "Sean Hannity's America" last weekend in which he attacked Al Gore and other "limousine liberals" for using private jets while bloviating about global warming.

Even by Hannity's standards, this was thin gruel. The only examples he had of Gore actually using a private plane dated from the 2000 election campaign, when Gore was the vice president of the United States. I wondered why I never noticed him back then on any commercial airliners, sharing a couple of rows of seats with the Secret Service.

And, of course, Hannity's concern wasn't that Gore might have been endangering the planet. It was that he might have been diluting the purity of American political discourse with the base alloy of hypocrisy.

President Bush is, of course, exempt from the charge. In 2000, he was in blithe denial about global warming, although by 2001, he was ready to admit that there might be something to it after all. That's OK. Bush didn't get global warming during the campaign, so he could fly however he wanted. Gore, who did get it, had to play by different rules.

Hannity doesn't object to all travel in private jets, just travel by people who suspect that private jets add to global climate degradation. Ignorance is bliss. And a much more convenient way to travel.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

There are times that I get pretty discouraged. This changes the topic, but it illustrates my frustration. Guys like Hannity are "angry" that Iran (our enemy) might be slipping weapons into Iraq to support Shietes But they say nothing about Saudi Arabia (our friend) slipping weapons into Iraq for the Sunnis. Likewise, nothing is mentioned about us giving aid to Iraq (our friend, I guess) when it attacked Iran in the 1980. Next they support our constitutional right to keep and bear arms (which would help us fight off a country that might attack us) but of course will not support the Iraqis right to keep and bear arms (which would help them fight off a country that might attack them--like us). And anyone who points out these inconsistencies is unpatriotic.

Anonymous said...

So how does Gore get around ( and he does get around a lot!) if he's not on a jet? Does he walk or ride a bike? Did he swim to Europe?

Anonymous said...

In fact Mr Gore lives in a massive 15,000 sqft home and uses no less that 10 times the energy the avearge home uses in his area. No problem, he is buying "carbon offset credits" nice that he can afford them so much for that ecology drivel. Oh wait, he owns the company that sells the carbon offset credits. That is convienient. Now that is marketing! Create a boogey man (global warming) and offera cure for a price. But David will defend him to the end, because David cares.