Rachel Maddow calls "bullpuckey" on the Republicans constant barrage of lies we've heard, claiming that President Obama is somehow anti-energy while trying to make hay of the recent rise in gas prices. As she noted, like it or not, he's been anything but, not that facts matter much to the GOP who are desperate to find anything to make a campaign issue out of.
As Karoli already noted, the yappers over at Fox can barely contain their glee over rising gas prices and that clip with Hannity and Rove isn't the least or the worst of it by far.
I guess if they wise up to the fact that trying to take us back a half century on the birth control issue isn't working out for them, this is the other nonsense we get to look forward to from now until the election.
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MADDOW: After former House Speaker Newt Gingrich won the South Carolina primary at the end of January, he was pretty much on top of the world. He was the frontrunner in the Republican race for president, he was awash in cash. Everything was great in Newt Gingrich land.
But look what`s happened to Mr. Gingrich since then. He is the green line on this graph.
Yes, total collapse. Newt Gingrich`s disappeared into oblivion in the Republican race over the last month. He had sunk like a stone falling through water.
And so, Newt Gingrich is a man currently in need of a path back to relevance. Enter potential path back to relevance.
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BRIAN WILLIAMS, NBC NEWS: Gas prices are at the highest levels ever for this time of year, up 25 cents a gallon on average since the beginning of 2012.
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MADDOW: The recent pike in gas prices while pretty bad news for the U.S. economy has turned out to be great news for the politics of Newt Gingrich. Mr. Gingrich has just released a nearly 30 minute -- 30-minute- long TV ad that`s all about rising gas prices and what president Newt Gingrich will do to bring them down.
The ad has Mr. Gingrich in front of this blue curtain you see here, speaking directly into the camera for 29 straight minutes. No video. No graphics. Just this for half an hour.
"The Wall Street Journal" reporting today that the Gingrich campaign will run the entire video in key cities until Super Tuesday on March 6th. Your regularly scheduled programming will not be seen tonight so we can bring you 30 straight minutes of Newt Gingrich talking into the camera about energy while sitting in front of a blue curtain.
The issue of gas prices and whether there is political advantage to be plunged from them has gotten Republicans very excited in recent day. "The New York Times" reporting last week for instance that House Speaker John Boehner has been using the potential rise in gas prices as a way to essentially buck up the spirits of House Republicans. Quote, "Speaker Boehner instructed fellow Republicans to embrace the gas pump anger they find among their constituents."
Republicans are psyched! Republicans see political hay that could potentially get made here. And when Republicans get psyched, when they think there is political hay to be made, they go on TV and they say stuff like this.
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KARL ROVE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Look, President Obama has been anti-energy from the beginning. The president even gave a loan to Brazil - - Brazil which is eating our lunch economically, internationally. Why do they need our money? They got plenty of their own. He gave them a loan and told them, as you just alluded to, went down there and said, we want to be your best customer.
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MADDOW: That was Karl Rove on the FOX News Channel this week saying that President Obama is so anti-American energy, that he gave a loan to Brazil, so Brazil can drill for oil and we can then buy that oil from them.
If you travel around conservative media circles, this has been taken as gospel for the last few years. President Obama loaned Brazil $2 billion so they can drill for oil, while he`s all but stopped oil production here at home.
Now, while that might make for an awesome conservative talking point, it also happens to be 100 percent total unadulterated bullpuckey.
Here`s Karl Rove again.
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ROVE: Look, President Obama has been anti-energy from the beginning.
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MADDOW: President Obama, anti-energy from the beginning.
Now, according to Newt Gingrich and his 30-minute infomercial, the Obama administration is, quote, "anti-oil."
In fact-based world, here`s what`s actually happening to the American oil industry during the Obama administration. Quote, "The number of oil rigs in U.S. oil fields has more than quadrupled in the past three years. The United States now has more rigs at work than the entire rest of the world."
OK, Maddow, but just because we have more oil rigs now, that doesn`t mean we`re actually producing more oil. Yes, yes, it does, actually. This was U.S. oil production during the last four years of the Bush administration. That`s the number of barrels produced per year.
Here`s what`s happened under President Obama. Yes, oh, hey, look, oil production is up. We are producing more oil right now than we did at any point during George W. Bush`s second term.
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ROVE: Look, President Obama has been anti-energy from the beginning.
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MADDOW: Sure he has. And I`m the homecoming queen.
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ROVE: The president even gave a loan to Brazil -- Brazil which is eating our lunch economically internationally.
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MADDOW: Actually, no. No.
On the eating our lunch thing, think what you will -- that`s actually part of the appeal here.
But the president did not give a loan to April. A loan was made to the Brazilian oil company by something called the Export-Import Bank of the United States. Not by the president, but by the Export-Import Bank. The remit of the Export-Import Bank is to export more American goods around the world, and the way they do that is they make loans to foreign governments and foreign companies who commit to buying American products. When foreigners buy American stuff, that`s an export.
Now, you may like that kind of arrangement, or you may hate it, but it is not the president who made this deal. And as long as you care, this actual decision to extend this actual loan to Brazil, this was a decision made by Export-Import Bank board members who were all appointed by George W. Bush.
Somebody, alert Karl Rove!
When gas prices go up, as they are going up right now, it is essentially a certainty that some politician somewhere is going to try to make political hay out of it. Those politicians, those political commentators, they deserve to be fact checked when they say stuff like that. And when they are wrong, when they are lying through their teeth, it deserves to be called bullpuckey.
It`s very simple. Bullpuckey.
