Bill Kristol never, ever ever ever, has a shred of evidence to back up anything he says. He is the ultimate case of “I’m a rich nepotized white guy, so you have to listen to me.” He is the opposite of journalism, the opposite even of commentary.

Why would the governnor of Louisiana be clamoring for other states to start drilling offshore?  One of Louisiana’s only sources of income is offshore oil drilling, and if the big oil companies that currently have outposts scattered across South Louisiana were to leave for Florida, Alaska, etc. then the last remaining jobs really would be gone and Louisiana would be even more of a third world level backwater than it already is.

If Jindal were smart, wouldn’t he be against the ANWR and other offshore drilling outside the Gulf for reasons of local protectionism?

Eww ... sheeple.  Can we please, please retire this word?  It just reeks of the sophomoric ‘anarchist’ pamphlets I keep getting handed at school.

If Jindal were smart, wouldn’t he be against the ANWR and other offshore drilling outside the Gulf for reasons of local protectionism?

The Opoponax

You’re assuming that he is smart.  I recall he has a degree in biology, yet believes that superstitious nonsense be taught right beside science.  He lives in the 21st Century, yet performs exorcisms.  Jindal is just a useful fool who’s allowed others to fill his head with visions of sugarplums and the padded “rumpus room” in the sub-basement of the Naval Observatory.

Opoponax, is it possible to be Republican these days and be against ANWR? I think they revoke your membership for that…

Bill, you’re in the wrong house again!

it would take 10 years for the oil to hit the market

The proposed impact on the market is just a convenient excuse—the real reason the Republicans want to drill ANWR is aesthetic.

I reckon Kristol is angling for VP himself. Sure, he has no experience doing anything, and he’s never been right about anything, but his ideology is RIGHT ON.

Jindal is in the pocket of Big Oil.  Louisiana is home to many large oil refineries that would presumably be processing some of that ANWR oil, or at least the companies that own those refineries would do so in other locations.  In practice, most of the ANWR oil would probably wind up going to China and India and other rapidly-industrializing nations.  That’s the secret that must never ever be shared with the American public as they discuss whether to pillage one of the last pristine wildernesses on the planet.

The price of oil has nothing to do with the supply. We have plenty of supply (for now). Since the housing market crashed, and the dollar is in the toilet, traders have moved over to oil. OPEC has complained loudly and often about this, but the MSM continues to insist it’s all those damn dirty Arab’s fault.

Guess what’ll happen when they start betting on water.

Some better news articles,
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/30/business/oil.php
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g516geWafnrAzKT1FM1fqXjddIpQ

Jindal is in the pocket of Big Oil.

It’s not really that simple.  Jindal is in the pocket of big oil insofar as the entire state of Louisiana is.  If the oil companies pull some of their resources out of Louisiana and put them into Alaska (for example), Louisiana’s economy goes even further down the tubes.  If this happens on Jindal’s watch, he looks bad (and my suspicion is that Jindal is similarly vulnerable to the kind of scapegoating Blanco got).  So while he has to be a surrogate of sorts, for Big Oil, he also has to keep state interests in mind.  Or, at least, that has been one of the key roles that past governors have had to play. 

The extent to which he doesn’t appear to realize that proves what a horrible choice he would be for any executive branch position at the federal level.

all this talk about oil spills and destroyed oil platforms is just a lot of pop sociology going around. . .  there really is no evidence to support it.

Opopoax -

If this happens on Jindal’s watch, he looks bad

Ah, but there’s the rub.  The “investment” in ANWR would take a decade or more to play out.  So the “hit” to Louisiana’s economy wouldn’t occur on Jindal’s watch - it would be whatever schmuck happens to be holding the hot potato when the hammer falls who will take the blame.  Bog-standard shortsighted political thinking these days - Jindal will be somewhere far more lucrative than the LA governor’s mansion by the time Lousianans realize they’ve been had.

Meanwhile, beating the drum for drilling in ANWR (and really offshore drilling as well) serves two purposes.  First it fulfills the requirement that all Republicans must grovel before the oilmen in their party.  That’s been true for a long, long time (Ike warned about “Texas oilmen” who were gaining too much power over the party back in the 50s).  Not toeing the line on drilling in ANWR is enough to get you snubbed at the best fundraisers and cocktail parties.  Second, it’s become a part of Republican “identity politics” to do whatever pisses off “environmentalists” (or at least the caricature of “environmentalists” that they carry around in their psyches).  So if “environmentalists” don’t like drilling in ANWR then by-golly to be a good Republican you must be FOR it.  No matter how nonsensical it is as policy or how it may run opposed to your own self interest.