Washington Post Reports about Cheney's Secret Energy Meetings

The Washington Post has a story about the energy policy meetings that took place in 2001 and led people to believe that there was something fishy going on in Cheney's office.

The Post reports, "In all, about 300 groups and individuals met with staff members of the energy task force, including a handful who saw Cheney himself, according to the list, which was compiled in the summer of 2001. For six years, those names have been a closely guarded secret, thanks to a fierce legal battle waged by the White House. Some names have leaked out over the years, but most have remained hidden because of a 2004 Supreme Court ruling that agreed that the administration's internal deliberations ought to be shielded from outside scrutiny."

Sneaky Meetings?

"Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, who unsuccessfully pushed for details of the meetings, said it is "ridiculous" that it has taken six years to see who attended the meetings. He described the energy task force as an early indicator of "how secretively Vice President Cheney wanted to act."

Waxman said he was not surprised to see the prevalence of energy industry groups on the list of meetings. "Six years later, we see we lost an opportunity to become less dependent on importing oil, on using fossil fuels, which have been a threat to our national security and the well-being of the planet," he said."

Or Learning From History?

"The development of a new energy policy was Bush's first major initiative after he took office. He turned over responsibility of it to Cheney, a former chairman of Halliburton Co., a Dallas-based energy services firm.

Mindful of the disastrous fate that befell Hillary Rodham Clinton's unwieldy health-care task force, which included about 500 staff members and 34 working groups, Cheney kept his energy task force small and lean. Instead of a 1,300-page report, he aimed for something much shorter: The final product was 170 pages."

Gore Too Smart to be President?

The Washington Post put out an article the other day entitled "Is It Wise to Be so Smart?" in which they explain that while Al Gore is "still be the smartest guy in the room" and "Gore practically oozes gray matter," --he's probably too smart for us to be our president.

In a back-handed compliment sort of way, Gore has been posited as the anti-Bush. Where Bush is firm in his convictions Gore is "usually smart and sometimes prophetic - but, all too frequently, pedantic"

Said one of the listeners of a speech he made at George Washington University, “It's the biggest problem he's got, people don't want somebody who makes them feel stupid.” The writer seems to say that intelligence in a president is not welcomed--as if Americans want a president who they can feel superior to. As if that that's the American Way!

It's a good thing we have had dummies like Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt in the White House. Who knows what would have happened if we had some high-falutin' smartypants in there during the Civil War or the World Wars?

Maybe the love affair we have with celebrity is a testament to our need to be superior to others--don't most of us feel smarter than Paris, Michael, Lindsey, and Sanjaya? Maybe we need leaders who were previously seen on "Jerry Springer" or "America's Funniest Home Videos."

Or maybe, it is possible that the times we live in call for leaders who have the ability to synthesize information--to note that there is a relationship between increased CO2 emissions and global temperature elevation or that aluminum tubes can be used for more than making WMDs. Maybe we need a leader who seeks honest opinions from his advisors rather than for them to confirm what the president's position already is.

I know I enjoy feeling superior just as much as the next guy, but if the next guy happens to be of the caliber of Al Gore--I don't mind being above average.