Like these people,
Congress & gas guzzlers :
"Going a Short Way to Make a Point"
By Dana Milbank
Thursday, April 27, 2006; A02
washingtonpost.com
Is this a Case of Congress & Do as we say, Not as we do
..."Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines"...
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), at an Exxon station on Capitol Hill -- Senate office a block away:
Chrysler LHS
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) to and from the gas-station news conference:
Hyundai Elantra
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) with a staffer idling:
Jetta
Capitol for their weekly caucus (Topic A: gas):
The House driveway was jammed with cars, many idling, including eight Chevrolet Suburbans (14 mpg).
Senators were debating a war spending bill yesterday, but the subject invariably turned to gas prices.
After lunchtime votes, senators emerged from the Capitol for the drive across the street to their offices.
Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.) hopped in a GMC Yukon (14 mpg).
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) climbed aboard a Nissan Pathfinder (15).
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) stepped into an eight-cylinder Ford Explorer (14).
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) disappeared into a Lincoln Town Car (17).
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) met up with an idling Chrysler minivan (18).
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), greeted by a Ford Explorer XLT.
Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), greenest senator, picked up by his hybrid Toyota Prius (60 mpg).
Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), was met by a Dodge Durango V8 (14).
Also waiting:
three Suburbans, a Nissan Armada V8, two Cadillacs and a Lexus.
If the politics of gasoline favor Democrats at the moment, the insincerity is universal.
A surreptitious look at the cars in the senators-only spots inside and outside the Senate office buildings found :
Escort
Sentra
Wisconsin Democrat Herb Kohl's spot had a Chevy Lumina
but far more
Jaguars, Cadillacs and Lexuses and a fleet of SUVs made by Ford, Honda, BMW and Lexus.
Sampling of senators' and staff cars parked along Delaware Avenue NE :
Democratic campaign bumper stickers had average fuel economy (23 mpg)
GOP campaign bumper stickers (18 mpg).
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) 1970s-era Volkswagen "Thing" (fuel-efficiency rating could not be found).
When GOP senators had a lunch Tuesday a couple of blocks from the Capitol, many took cars.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) spied The Washington Post's Shailagh Murray & he set out on foot. "I need the exercise". |
