Cataloging Washington hypocrisy would be a full-time job for a political blogger, but these two nuggets are worth thinking about as our elected betters preen over the hot topics du jour.
As Henry Waxman prepares to burden Americans with a carbon taxation scheme, President Obama is shirking his responsibility to use the bully pulpit and lead by example when it comes to “saving the planet”:
WASHINGTON — The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat.
“He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.Apparently President Hothouse Flower has no problem cranking the thermostat past 72 degrees if such an arbitrary limit interferes with him eschewing formality in the Oval Office. For the taxpayers’ sake, I hope that was a double pane window through which he was attempting to enter the White House.
Then there’s the matter of corporate jets. We are told it is unconscionable for CEO’s of troubled companies to fly private jets while the “CEO” of the House, Nancy Pelosi, takes a taxpayer-funded private jet everywhere she goes on official business. Never mind that those CEO’s junkets aren’t paid for by every American taxpayer and CEO’s are actually held accountable for their performance by shareholders – they’re setting a poor example.
But then again, Congress is doing such a great job they recently got a pay raise, so I guess we can’t criticize them too much when they bemoan Wall Street bonuses.
