"The Point" Having a Clue? It's Just an Urban Legend

We’re just wondering: does Mark Hyman think John Kerry and his wife were on the Grassy Knoll in Dallas in 1963.

Conservatives are attempting to “Hillarize” Theresa Heinz Kerry (despite the fact that she was previously married to a Republican senator) by painting her as a crazed liberal bent on funding extremist groups. Hyman jumps in with both feet in this editorial in which he claims that Heinz Kerry is funding radical environmental groups that are (somehow) keeping us from becoming independent from foreign oil.

This is just a specific case of many similar stories circulating on the Internet and among conservative ideologues. The urban legend site, snopes.com, deals with these concisely by going to the source. Their conclusion? These charges aren’t even “doubtful.” They’re simply false (sort of like the one about the giant alligators living in your sewer system). Among other things, the folks at the apolitical snopes.com site point out that the Capital Research Center, which Hyman touts as a “watchdog” group, is in fact a conservative thinktank (using “think” in the loosest possible sense of the word). Their take on the Heinz Kerry rumor mongering is worth a look.

Of course, we understand how jumpy conservatives like Hyman can be when it comes to any chance that the U.S. might not be energy independent--it's certainly a goal they take seriously. After all, this administration is actively seeking alternative sources of energy so we can avoid being dependent on the vagaries of Middle East politics to keep our country moving, right?

Well, not according to anybody outside the Bush administration itself. You don’t need to take the word of any radical environmental activist, either. As this essay by a commentator at the conservative Cato institute (and which appeared in conservatives' favorite magazine, National Review) points out, the idea that this administration ever planned to actively seek independence from foreign oil is laughable. This administration is headed by two veterans of the oil industry, and even the domestic oil industry is dependent on foreign oil cartels. As long as Bush is in office, this country will not make significant moves away from oil as a major source of energy, and this means no moving away from dependence on Middle Eastern oil barons.

And that’s The Counterpoint.