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House Republican endorses ‘the Paris Hilton plan’ on energy

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We’re well past the point at which congressional Republicans have jumped the shark, but let’s pause to appreciate the fact that at least one leading GOP lawmaker is now looking to a fake ad by a 27-year-old heiress/reality-show star as a serious source of public policy.

The lines between celebrity and politician blurred into a haze Thursday at a Republican news conference, as one congressman began pushing Paris Hilton’s “plan” on energy.

“Let’s bring up the Paris Hilton plan,” goaded Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas. […]

“Even Paris Hilton had an energy plan that she’s talking about,” said Burgess, seizing a chance to make Democrats look lackluster on the issue.

The Texas congressman tried to put Hilton in the Republican camp, claiming her words mirrored current GOP legislation known as the “No More Excuses Energy Act”. But, while that proposal does allow offshore drilling, a congressional summary shows it does not contain tax credits to encourage new automobile technology.

For crying out loud, Paris Hilton is not a policy expert. She wasn’t seriously offering an energy proposal for members of Congress to embrace as an actual solution.

For that matter, Hilton’s fake ad talked about using expanded coastal drilling to “carry us until the new technologies kick in,” which doesn’t make any sense, since even the Bush administration and McCain’s policy aides concede that we’re about a decade away from new coastal drilling having any kind of effect on the marketplace. And even then, we’re talking about pennies on the gallon. There’s nothing to actually “carry us” at all.

And yet, we actually have an elected member of Congress announcing, “Let’s bring up the Paris Hilton plan.”

It’s as if Republicans are going out of their way to appear ridiculous. On purpose.

I’d just add, by the way, that John McCain has dropped his sensible concession. Yesterday, after a week of nonsensical mockery, McCain backed down, and conceded Obama was right about the energy-efficiency benefits of routine auto maintenance. “Obama a couple of days ago said we all should inflate our tires. I don’t disagree with that. The American Automobile Association strongly recommends it,” McCain said.

Today in Ohio, however, he was back to his old tricks.

“He’s claiming putting air in your tires is the equivalent of new offshore drilling,” McCain said. “That’s not an energy plan, my friends — that’s a public service announcement.”

If McCain could at least pretend to take policy issues seriously, the prospect of his presidency wouldn’t be quite so horrific.

Obama never said auto maintenance was “an energy plan.” McCain certainly knows this, which is why it’s discomforting to hear him brazenly lying about it now.

But more importantly, McCain is not only dishonest about this, he’s still, even now, screwing up the facts.

[W]ho’s really out of touch? The Bush Administration estimates that expanded offshore drilling could increase oil production by 200,000 bbl. per day by 2030. We use about 20 million bbl. per day, so that would meet about 1% of our demand two decades from now. Meanwhile, efficiency experts say that keeping tires inflated can improve gas mileage 3%, and regular maintenance can add another 4%. Many drivers already follow their advice, but if everyone did, we could immediately reduce demand several percentage points. In other words: Obama is right. […]

The real problem with the attacks on his tire-gauge plan is that efforts to improve conservation and efficiency happen to be the best approaches to dealing with the energy crisis — the cheapest, cleanest, quickest and easiest ways to ease our addiction to oil, reduce our pain at the pump and address global warming. It’s a pretty simple concept: if our use of fossil fuels is increasing our reliance on Middle Eastern dictators while destroying the planet, maybe we ought to use less.

The RNC is trying to make the tire gauge a symbol of unseriousness, as if only the fatuous believed we could reduce our dependence on foreign oil without doing the bidding of Big Oil. But the tire gauge is really a symbol of a very serious piece of good news: we can use significantly less energy without significantly changing our lifestyle.

The phrase, “It’s like these guys take pride in being ignorant” keeps coming to mind.

Comments

  • MW

    says:

    My wife and I were discussing this the other night. It occurred to us that following McCain’s and the Republican’s rational in this argument means that in World War II victory gardens and scrap drives should have all been ridiculed as FDR’s only plan for beating Germany and Japan.

  • Racer X

    says:

    One thing to remind people is that it takes about 60% of the energy in a barrel of oil to actually get the remaining 40% of it into your tank. Drilling, refining, shipping, storage, cleanup, etc, all add up. So if you save a gallon of gas by keeping your tires properly inflated, you just saved over two gallons of gas worth of energy, and what’s more you did it without making any investment at all, as opposed to many other energy saving strategies.

    Nega-Watts Rock.

  • Racer X

    says:

    Good analogy, MW. And one that will connect with McCain’s voters!

    Imagine the Republicans waving carrots around, saying “This is not a strategy to win a war, this is a public service announcement!”

  • hark

    says:

    Actually, I don’t think Paris Hilton said we should drill in protected areas. I think she said we should do more offshore drilling but be very careful about the environment, which could be construed as to simply expand drilling where there are existing leases.

    I remember the phrase she used, because it seemed so carefully worded, as if someone put some thought into it. Check it out. I’m pretty sure about this.

  • joey(bjobotts)

    says:

    This is rabble rousing. Yelling “hang ’em” when no crime has been committed even. Why is McCain even talking such nonsense…because only by demeaning Obama does McCain even stay in the race because he knows republicans are just looking for someone to blame and hate for all their problems more than doing anything to solve them.

    But McCain’s attempts to demean Obama are so pathetic that besides the mindless followers that cheer at anything coming out of his mouth people are starting to see that his experience is merely a ‘reputation’ of smears and threatening behavior. What is true for McCain is dependent on what day it is and what audience he is speaking to.

    The more he talks the bigger the hole he digs for himself and even the barbecue bedazzled press cannot save him. It’s a campaign to nowhere.

  • Racer X

    says:

    “while [the Republican] proposal does allow offshore drilling, a congressional summary shows it does not contain tax credits to encourage new automobile technology.”

    And that should tell the voters all they need to know. The Republicans want us to give the oil companies what they want, and they will lie their asses off in the process. They have no interest in increased efficiency.

  • syl

    says:

    in World War II victory gardens and scrap drives should have all been ridiculed as FDR’s only plan for beating Germany and Japan

    Yeah, or like saying Bush’s only plan for post-war Iraq was “they will great us as liberators.” Hey, wait…

  • MsJoanne

    says:

    Chad, you’re a little behind on your talking points. Yesterday (or the day before even) McCain said that tire pressure is guuud again.

    It’s OK now. You can tune up your car and check your tires. The GOP allows it today.

    Zig Heil!

  • Memekiller

    says:

    hark,

    You’re right. I remember thinking her word choice was quite well-crafted. She gave a middle-of-the-road pose, but it was pretty clear McCain was the target – and for all the “split-the-difference” frame, it was pretty much Obama’s position. Hilton’s mother also gave a statment that could have come from the Obama campaign.

    I can’t blame them. If McCain brought my daughter into the Presidential election, I’d come back pretty hard against him, even if I was a Republican. I’d fire a shot across Obama’s bow if he did the same thing.

    McCain brought her into the campaign, and she went for an all-out, throw-down, and McCain got pinned to the matt. Which is what Paris intended to do.

  • Greg

    says:

    The problem is that Obama was made to look silly, it doesn’t matter if he was right or not about the efficiency of inflating your tires, McSame wins because they turned it into a joke. You can get a free tire gauge that reads “Obama’s energy plan” by donating $25 on McCain’s site.

    If he hadn’t backed out of the summer town hall debates he promised to do, maybe he could have had a substantive debate with McCain about this, instead he is losing ground in the polls and is being laughed at by the people he needs to win over, you know, the gun toting clingy religious typical white people that Donna Brazile says he doesn’t need to win.

  • 2Manchu

    says:

    Really, is it suprising that the GOP and their supporters are turning to the entertainment industry for ideas?

    They claim that torture is justified because it works for Jack Bauer on “24”.

    And of course, Glenn Beck said that the White House’s counter-terrorism policies were vindicated by “The Dark Knight”.

  • Lance

    says:

    “It’s as if Republicans are going out of their way to appear ridiculous. On purpose.”

    It’s a deep plot of the party elders (James Baker III types) to lose this election and put the blame on their wingnut fringe, thus silencing those extremists for a good six to ten years. Thus they can take the party back for it’s intended purpose.

    Making them gross amounts of unearned money.

  • Memekiller

    says:

    Greg,
    Yeah… if Obama had simply agreed to McCain’s debates, McCain wouldn’t have mocked him.

    This is a campaign year, and Obama is a Democrat. That’s why they sell those tire gauges.

  • doubtful

    says:

    Obama is too much of a celebrity to have any sound policies. Oh how I hate celebrities.

    Now lets get back to discussing Paris’s energy plan and why we love Ronald Regan so much.

  • Jim G

    says:

    I think we should encourage the Republicans to adopt the “Paris” model of energy policy… Then, while Barrack would be a “celebrity”, they would be “followers of a celebrity”

  • Greg

    says:

    Memekiller, the point is that he could have kept from slipping in the polls.. of course he will be mocked, that’s a given, but he is losing ground and should not be.

  • The Answer is Orange

    says:

    Someone please stick a fork in the GOP. They are d-o-n-e.

    Now, where does McCuckoo’s change of heart on basic car maintenance practices put us on the McCane flip-flop sweepstakes?

  • petorado

    says:

    What does Utah’s Republican governor tell his constituents to do about high gas prices in Utah?

    (via the Salt Lake Tribune) ” Gov. Huntsman’s advice? Drive the speed limit (you often can get more miles per gallon at lower speeds), drive as little as possible and purchase gasoline from the stations with the lowest prices.”

    Should we next ask Jessica Simpson what her energy policy will be?

  • Jesse

    says:

    “The Bush Administration estimates that expanded offshore drilling could increase oil production by 200,000 bbl. per day by 2030. We use about 20 million bbl. per day, so that would meet about 1% of our demand two decades from now. Meanwhile, efficiency experts say that keeping tires inflated can improve gas mileage 3%”

    This is something I’ve been wondering about and hope you guys can help me out. Our gas mileage would improve 3%, but does that correspond to a 3% drop in demand? Is 100% of our demand going into our cars? Keeping tires inflated can have an immediate effect (unlike drilling) but it seems worth looking into – how do the two match up side by side: demand to demand, not demand to mileage.

  • Matt

    says:

    I just ran across this interesting article “Drill Here, Drill Now,” that delivered a number of interesting points about offshore drilling. One interesting fact is that 620,500 barrels of oil ooze organically from North America’s ocean floors each year, compared to the average 6,555 barrels that oil companies have spilled annually since 1998. It’s an interesting article and i suggest you read it.

  • Turdblossom

    says:

    And yet–there are Hillary supporters who are going to vote for this guy even though his policies are the antithesis to her policies.

    Stupid ass Democrats!

    McCain will be your next President. I read these threads and I’m astonished at the respect you folks give the American people for remembering anything beyond the last ad they were exposed to. We are creating the Obama meme of “the elitist other, not ready to lead,” and you guys are complimenting the Obama campaign for being spineless in their response.

    LOL

  • biggerbox

    says:

    Wait, I thought the “Paris Hilton” plan was to have a sex video widely distributed on YouTube…is that what the GOP wants?

    I’m soo confuuused.

  • azportsider

    says:

    “…the mindless followers that cheer at anything coming out of [McCain’s] mouth…”

    That would be the ‘news’ media, wouldn’t it?

  • Roddy McCorley

    says:

    It’s as if Republicans are going out of their way to appear ridiculous. On purpose.

    Maybe they are. After all, if they appear ridiculous enough, the whole system starts to appear ridiculous. And if the system appears ridiculous enough, people decide it’s ridiculous to bother voting.

    And when fewer people vote, Republicans win more elections.

  • N.Wells

    says:

    Doubtful said it nicely: weren’t celebrities supposed to be a bad thing? I need more Kool-Aid – how can I properly support Republican positions when I can’t keep up with the changes? Also, the main problem with keeping tires properly inflated is that it doesn’t seem to give us an excuse to bomb the crap out of some foreigners. Where’s the fun in that?
    /snark

  • Always hopeful

    says:

    “celebrity followers” are GROUPIES. So any time they call Obama a celebrity, we should call them groupies. Remember Chuck Norris shadowing Huckabee too…

  • The Answer is Orange

    says:

    Wait, I thought the “Paris Hilton” plan was to have a sex video widely distributed on YouTube…is that what the GOP wants?

    Given the way those freaks behave I’m surprised the world hasn’t been subjected to “David Vitter Does Diapers” or “Larry Craig Stalls for Time.”

  • libra

    says:

    I think we should encourage the Republicans to adopt the “Paris” model of energy policy… — Jim G, @19

    Meanwhile, *in* Paris, they’re talking about starting a bike-sharing plan. Similar to the one which has been in place in Copenhagen for years (though, I think, in Copenhagen it’s for free, while the Parisian plan would be along the same lines as the car sharing one — for a fee rental.)

  • Allan

    says:

    “For crying out loud, Paris Hilton is not a policy expert. She wasn’t seriously offering an energy proposal for members of Congress to embrace as an actual solution.”

    Quite right. What she was doing was ridiculing John “The oldest celebrity in the world” McCain and I find it hilarious that neither John “That wrinkly white-haired dude” McCain nor his campaign, nor Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, get it. If they had even a lick of sense they’d drop the whole Obama is nothing but a celebrity thing and never mention it again.

  • Bruno

    says:

    moron chad @ 1 said:

    It’s better advice than inflating our tires and getting tune-ups.

    Sorry but on one of the other threads, Ron wanted me to take Chad serious, because he’s engaging.
    Maybe chad can explain, how:

    …. Offshore drilling …that would meet about 1% of our demand two decades from now

    is better blan than:

    …efficiency experts say that keeping tires inflated can improve gas mileage 3% immediately

    Is there a separate republican universe? One that was ‘intelligently designed’ where 1% down the road is far better than 3% today.

    The mind is such a terrible thing to waste. Poor chad

  • Bruno

    says:

    “Let’s bring up the Paris Hilton plan,” goaded Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas

    How about asking Paris Hilton to be McCain’s VP

    Wouldn’t that be an interesting new adaptation of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast”

    Chat and his fellow trolls will be able to get the best seats when it comes out. Keep accumulating those coupons /tokens etc…

  • Bruno

    says:

    Wait, I thought the “Paris Hilton” plan was to have a sex video widely distributed on YouTube…is that what the GOP wants?

    For Republicans, that WAS a sex video, considering she was wearing a rather revealing ‘sexy’ bathing suit.

    AND it was endorsed by one of the wacko Republicans, so… from now on, it’s OK to watch porn on the tubes.

    The republican party is sure changing:

    McCain offering his wife Cindy to participate in a topless contest

    endorsing Paris Hilton’s energy policy after they were against it first. They must have been distracted by the leopard pattern.

    Maybe Chad can explain?