GOP Rep. Pushing Wacky Tall Tale About Commies Drilling For Oil Off American Shores
Last time we checked in on Rep. "Mean Jean" Schmidt, the Ohio Republican facing a tough challenge from Dem Victoria Wulsin, she was busy demonizing her opponent as someone who conducts grisly scientific experiments on innocent human victims.
Now she's outdoing herself again, spreading a tall tale that even other Republicans know is bogus: The notion that China is supposedly drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico.
She's pushing this fiction in order to whip up fear about high gas prices and Democrats wanting to sell the country out to the Communists -- a clear effort to boost her base turnout against Wulsin, who nearly beat Schmidt two years ago and very well could unseat her this time around.
Schmidt appeared today on the Bill Cunningham radio show, a well-known right-wing talker based out of Cincinnati whose show is a lifeline to the local GOP base:
Cunningham: Give us the facts. Are the Red Chinese drilling in the Gulf of Mexico?Schmidt: Well, according to the USA Today February 22, 2007 report, they are.
Um, no. According to USA Today's article, available on Nexis: "Today, companies from Spain, Norway, India, Malaysia and China are involved, either drilling wells onshore or using horizontal drilling to reach reservoirs in shallow coastal waters."
Schmidt faces a tough rematch against Democratic candidate Victoria Wulsin, a doctor who nearly defeated her in 2006. Get ready for Schmidt to push the China-Cuba legend quite a bit more this cycle -- whatever the facts are, she sure likes this story.
For the old-timers, remember this variation from 1964:
Jean Schmidt: In your guts, you know she's nuts.
June 20, 2008 7:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cha-ching!
$50 for Victoria Wulsin via ActBlue.com.
Keep 'em coming, Schmidt-head!
June 21, 2008 2:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Damn Commies taking all our oil!
Sheesh, I really hope people are not that gullible.
June 20, 2008 7:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
yeah the first time i heard about this story was from sean hannity
http://sensico.wordpress.com/
June 20, 2008 10:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
There are Communist Chinese drilling for oil in America in COLORADO. Google the Canadian Company: EnCana.
Jean Schmidt is a shit . . . a dumb-shit.
June 20, 2008 7:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Speaking of wacky, anybody besides me notice how wacked-out and ignorant comments to mainstream media stories can be? The Washington Post had to take a bunch of hate mail off its frequently idiotic Comments feature today (Friday), receiving many reader complaints. And Newsweek’s story on Obama’s 15% lead features a comment with the “n” world they haven’t (yet?) deleted, while another reader explains this: “other polls put it at mccain 65% and the other guy 35%” The Post is running the following, as to Scott McClellan:
"cute chubby-chucker, gotta love scotty.
does scotty have a story to tell or just a book?
scotty knows something, but what does scotty know?
i say, "take the cute texas chubby chucker and make him talk".
waterboard the cute little chubby chucker or make him pose naked in a pyramid with other cute little texans"
The rest of the world is not TPM.
June 20, 2008 9:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, the idea that they are drilling on land or in shallow coastal waters would be even more effective for the scare tactic she is trying than the technically (apparently) false statement that they are drilling off shore. Not great to point out that she's wrong if the right answer reinforces her point (such as it is).
June 20, 2008 10:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Small correction, Eric. I believe the word you were looking for in your first sentence is "grisly," not "gristly."
Unless, of course, there is gristle involved.
That said, your point is taken. Mean Jean's totally batshit.
June 20, 2008 10:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, just blame the Chinese for our problems.
Makes me, as a Chinese-American, feel warm and welcome in this country...
June 20, 2008 11:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey TPM, you know how you accused Obama of a having a bullshit excuse when he said that he'd opting out of public financing partly due to the need to combat 527s? You implied that he was lying? You implied that, just like Politico did?
Here's one for you that accuses him of a Muslim. Note, this does not include the one that was ran in South Dakota against him:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/20/223128/818/541/539504
Once again, bad reporting TPM. You know the 527s are coming against Obama in full force, only an idiot would assume the opposite.
June 20, 2008 11:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
This was in 2006.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/09/washington/09drill.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2&oref=slogin
June 21, 2008 6:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oil isn't an important issue to TPM's hand-wringing FISA flakes.
President McCain will drill where he pleases.
June 21, 2008 9:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
Rumor has it when he was a younger fly boy he drilled quite a few.
June 21, 2008 10:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Jean Schmidt - one of the craziest Repugs in Congress and that's really saying something.
June 21, 2008 10:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
And Jim Webb just lost my backing for anything. This just in:
Webb Wants Offshore Oil Drilling, Breaks With Obama
June 21, 2008 10:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's not oil drilling, it's gas drilling, which allegedly is more environmentally safe. It seems that the virginia polls in the state house and the governor want this, so as he is the senator for Virginia, he is doing what his state wants.
I'm still for Webb for VP, eventhough I am against offshore drilling of anything, geologically speaking of course.
June 21, 2008 10:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
I never cared about Webb to start with. He's way conservative and his value is mainly that he hates Bush and the war. On domestic issues he is not that good and not a good choice for veep, IMO.
He never was. In the first place two senators on the same ticket is one of the worst ideas in the world.
June 21, 2008 10:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
I still love Wes Clark, but I don't know how effective he would be. Will be very interesting to see who is chosen.
June 21, 2008 11:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
It will be interesting, Amelie.
I'm holding out hope for someone I haven't heard of before. I would really love to have Obama choose someone who doesn't come in with enough baggage for an around-the-world trip, which automatically exempts everyone who is currently in Congress.
Maybe one of the retired military he has advising him - if any of them have enough experience to justify the position.
June 21, 2008 11:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Tena: I agree, I hope he stays away from Congressional members. The man I adore is Russ Feingold, but that would probably be poison to Obama. But someone like Russ, outside Congress, that has principal and intelligence. And yes, I think military is almost a must. Remember Ross Perot and that VP he chose? What a nightmare!
June 21, 2008 11:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
One of the hands down funniest bits SNL ever did was the bit with Dana Carvey playing Ross Perot, driving his non compos mentos veep out into the country and putting him out of the car like a dog and speeding off.
I still laugh my ass off at that.
June 21, 2008 12:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cuban oil rigs could be built 45 miles off South Florida
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/mar/17/cuban-oil-rigs-could-be-built-45-miles-south-flori/?printer=1/
June 21, 2008 11:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
And just what is Cuba going to use for money to build these rigs?
June 21, 2008 11:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
BTW, off point, but my brother, who is very liberal, likes Obama, but was so upset Obama did not take public financing. Were any of you upset about it? Just curious.
June 21, 2008 11:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
No I'm not. But I never cared one way or the other.
I do not believe that any legislation on campaign finance reform has been at all satisfactory. Too damn many loopholes, mainly the giant 527 loophole.
I think Obama did the right thing.
June 21, 2008 11:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
That giant 527 loophole is what the rest of us refer to as free speech...you could always fight to outlaw that too...
June 23, 2008 9:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
I am a HUGE supporter of rail travel. With our airlines in disarray and gas costs soaring, I noted this tidbit and thought I would share.
Amtrak’s fortunes also hinge on who wins the White House; Senator John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee, was a staunch opponent of subsidies to Amtrak when he was chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. Barack Obama, the probable Democratic nominee, was a co-sponsor of the Senate version of the bill to provide an 80/20 financing match
June 21, 2008 12:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Boy am I with you on this one, Amelie. I cannot believe we let our rail system just rot.
It's ridiculous - every other civilized country on earth has got a passenger rail system. We used to. What happened was Eisenhower, the end of WWII, and unholy government subsidies to build this network of highways and burn all this fossil fuel up.
June 21, 2008 12:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cindy McCain's nasty little secret.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-elliott/as-long-as-were-talking-a_b_108060.html
June 21, 2008 12:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Could you imagine if Michelle Obama went out on the stump saying:
"I'm just a working mom of two, trying to raise them properly, setting a good example for them, never been addicted to prescription drugs."
That's about as subtle as Cindy "I'm-not-really-a-lizard-woman-from-the-80s-series-'V'" McCain.
June 21, 2008 1:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
One of the hands down funniest bits SNL ever did was the bit with Dana Carvey playing Ross Perot, driving his non compos mentos veep out into the country and putting him out of the car like a dog and speeding off.
I still laugh my ass off at that.
June 21, 2008 12:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ach! double post.
Comments is acting up - Eric, Greg -
June 21, 2008 12:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Aren't we tired of her already??!!
June 21, 2008 1:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
There is a relatively small stretch of water where Cuban and US territorial claims would overlap and by agreement that 90 mile band was split 45/45. The reality is that Cuba could potentially have oil wells 45 miles from Key West and not that they could be drilling a similar distance off of Fort Lauderdale. The whole thing is simple hysteria, typical of Crazy Jean.
As to financing oil companies from around the world are jumping to get Cuba's oil fields. I would think relatively few third world countries with oil reserves attempt to self finance construction of oil rigs.
June 22, 2008 1:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
She's worse than nuts.
She's kinda like, if you sloshed her with water, she would let off steam and sink into a pile of empty clothes with a flag lapel pin on top.
If a house fell on her, her little striped socks would all shrivel up.
She's a piece of work. I was watching CSPAN when she took out after Murtha.
What so funny is that the GOP is full of people as loopy as her.
That's why we're going to kick their behinds in a few months and then finish off the job in the next midterms. The GOP is going to get dismantled.
Forever.
June 22, 2008 6:38 PM | Reply | Permalink