I'm hammered pretty regularly for claiming that the core of the Democratic Party's foreign policy "cloud" really doesn't do a good job of standing for American interests. I'm reminded that Kos isn't the Democratic Party, Cindy Sheehan isn't the Democratic Party, Michael Moore isn't the Democratic Party.
Well, Al Gore is actually pretty damn close to the epicenter of the Democratic Party.
Gore said Arabs had been "indiscriminately rounded up" and held in "unforgivable" conditions. The former vice president said the Bush administration was playing into al-Qaida's hands by routinely blocking Saudi visa applications.He was in good company in donning kneepads:
Also at the forum, the vice chairman of Chevron Corp., Peter Robertson, said President Bush's desire to cut U.S. dependence on Mideast oil shows a "misunderstanding" of global energy supply and the critical role of Saudi Arabia.I can forgive Chevron - he's an oil company executive; if he wasn't venal and shortsighted, I'd worry.In his State of the Union address this month, Bush pledged to cut U.S. dependence on Middle East oil by 75 percent by 2025.
"This notion of being energy independent is completely unreasonable," Robertson said at the economic forum, which opened Saturday.
But what the hell is Gore thinking? I know that the House of Saud owns a substantial portion of Congress, but I didn't think they invested in has-been candidates.
And where is someone, anyone in the Democratic Party to smack some sense into him? This is just embarrassing.