The Forecast Calls for Pain

I will give Al Gore this much - he's consistent. And his consistency is causing some of his pals heartburn.

With gas prices around $4 a gallon, fealty to environmentalism seems a little less important to some people in the Democratic Party. Tomorrow Gore is planning to make a major speech in Washington to try to keep his global warming crusade going. According to The Hill:

Al Gore hopes to put global warming back at the top of Washington’s agenda Thursday, but some Democrats in Congress are questioning his timing when they
are getting pummeled by Republicans over record gas prices.

Gore hopes to deliver a major speech on the environment at Constitution Hall in Washington Thursday that will “press the reset button on how people are looking at the energy crisis and the climate crisis,” said Brian Hardwick, spokesman for Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection.

Some in Gore's party would prefer to skip past Al's message, though, especially some less-tenured Congresscritters.

“I think the American public will be much more receptive to arguments about climate change when gas prices aren’t so critical,” said Rep. Zack Space, a
freshman Democrat who represents a mostly rural district in Ohio.

I almost feel sorry for guys like Rep. Space, who have to fall in line with their leadership on environmental issues. But in the end, there's no reason for sympathy. The Democrats deserve the pummeling they are getting. President Bush has been absolutely consistent on this issue for the entirety of his presidency. Meanwhile, Gore and his colleagues have been consistently on the other side. Now that things are tough, Bush's position looks better.

It will be interesting to see if the Democrats abandon their full-bore (pun intended) environmentalist posturing for the remainder of the campaign. They may have to. A lot of ideas that the Left holds dear have been thrown under the zero-emission bus recently. Will Prophet Al be next?

Cross-posted at True North