Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Co Inky Dink

In politics, timing is everything.

We have this Senator out here in Washington State., who has made her bones on standing up to Big Oil, such that she's been running TV ads mentioning how she's stood up to Big Oil. She's also driven the boodle-driven senior Senator from Alaska to distraction, but that's just a bonus.

So what happens? One of the Big Oil companies in Alaska determines they need to shut down their pipeline for corrosion. Which is good, since the oil companies are legendary for putting more effort into press releases denying that they're assaulting the environment than in actually doing anything about it.

Of course, this just HAPPENS to be within 100 days of an election. And now the press is already talking gas going up to Four Bucks a Gallon.

Amazing how that works out. Sixteen miles of corroded pipe needs to be shut down now, without a backup system in place, which will cause economic hardship in a locality whose senator has been giving them lip, and who is up for re-election. Timing is everything.

In other news, completely unrelated, the Senator's opponent, who has vowed to run a campaign based on civility, is eleven points back and just hired a guy who specializes in negative campaigning.

Not that the two items are connected in any way.

More later,