Lord knows that Freedom’s Watch is doing alot of good things. Between supporting the troops to ridiculing Democrats on high gas prices, they’re generally moving the ball down the field. I say generally because Carl Forti, in talking about the Democrats planning on running ads tying Republicans to Big Oil, gave this quote to the LA Times:

So what’s a Republican candidate to do?

“You hunker down and ride it out,” said Carl Forti, a former congressional GOP strategist and now executive vice president for issue advocacy at Freedom’s Watch, a conservative organization.

Mr. Forti couldn’t be more wrong. You don’t hunker down. You go on the offensive. Instead of hunkering down, you highlight this quote from the Sierra Club’s Carl Pope:

Our own folly is cheap fuel. The United States once had large oil reserves, and they made us rich and powerful. Ergo, cheap fuel, oil, coal, nuclear, or whatever, is seen as being key to our continued prosperity and future security. This gusher mentality deforms our society and economy. It leads the United States to sabotage international efforts to combat global warming, tolerate a huge trade deficit that has destroyed millions of manufacturing jobs, and keep military bases in the Middle East, where they serve as rallying points for terrorists. And it’s why the U.S. auto industry continues to promote size and performance over safety and efficiency.

Excuse me? Keeping inflation low lets people keep more of their hard-earned money, which is a positive thing, right? Not according to Mr. Pope. That’s because he’d rather save the world, along with Ms. Pelosi, from global warming than let people keep more of their money.

Envionutters are saying outrageous things like this but we’re suppposed to “hunker down and ride it out”? I think not, Mr. Forti. Mr. Forti would be wise to heed Dick Wadhams:

Dick Wadhams, campaign manager for Colorado Senate candidate Schaffer, said that Democrats’ attacks on the oil industry could backfire against growing public support for expanded domestic energy exploration.

BINGO!!! That’s the fact we must remind ourselves of. You can’t want lower gas prices while wishing Big Oil ill. People want cheap gas. They aren’t that fussy about how that happens. People will whine about Big Oil making profits. The minute that they’re done with that, though, they’re hoping that Big Oil increases the supply of oil.

I love this ad:

“Chris Carney voted five times against environmentally safe domestic energy production, voted against American energy independence,” says a radio ad scheduled to run in the Pennsylvania Democrat’s House district. “But Chris Carney stands in the way while we cut back on gas and groceries, family outings and summer vacations.”

That’s an effective response to Democrats screaming “Big Oil, Big Oil.” Like the term liberal, Big Oil just doesn’t have the impact that it did a decade ago.

Technorati Tags: Big Oil, Carl Forti, Dick Wadhams, Carl Pope, Chris Carney, Sierra Club, Gas Crisis, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog