The Monday after, Part 1

Yeah, I know it’s not Monday. I was busy this weekend, Father’s Day and all.

But, we might just make this a weekly event. Each weekend, I’ll catch a former Republican Governor on the radio for you and provide the highlights and the corrections on Monday. Or, when I get around to it.

Mr. Robert L. Ehrlich is now getting himself some attention - keeping hope alive or something like that. He’s been known to wax poetic and be very kind to himself and his record (Aren’t we all.). He’s been known to treat the facts with something less than precision. He’s been known to take swipes at people for political gain, including me on a rare occasion.

Besides, this is just good political fun. I know we’ll all enjoy it. (Warning: KKK/Skinhead alert below.)

Electricity Costs

Mr. Ehrlich: “Just imagine that if… my PSC chairman would oversee an 84% increase in electricity rates what folks on the other side would be saying. Yet, not a peep this week…”

The Corrections: Mr. Ehrlich, read closely. 72% of that 84% rate hike was done under your watch by your PSC (Public Service Commission) which you appointed. Your PSC included two former Republican delegates who voted for electricity deregulation and ALL that it did. One of those guys even helped to write the final legislation.

If you think the “flawed” deregulation bill was a serious error in judgment, why did you appoint two guys who voted for it to run your PSC?

Mr. Ehrlich: “Electricity costs 84% more is the bottom line. And, nothing that Martin O’Malley or (PSC Chair Steven) Larsen or whomever could have done, the last couple of years, impact it…in fact, including myself. I’m trying to be pretty upfront, very upfront during the course of my governorship and during the campaign: (to say) look, here is what happened and here is why.”

The Corrections: Energy costs are rising. They have since 1999. So as he implies, higher prices are expected. But, it was Mr. Ehrlich who loudly proclaimed that the “72 percent won’t stand” in March of 2006. Now we learn from the man who said it, that it wasn’t true? Ehrlich’s PSC approved the bids that gave us 72%. His PSC jammed that rate hike into the quick-dry cement of signed, sealed and delivered contracts. This was done just after Katrina spiked energy prices. At the time, nobody knew this except Mr. Ehrlich, his PSC and the utilities.

Al Redmer, Former Ehrlich appointee and a phone-in guest on the show

Mr. Redmer: “If you look at the facts, the facts are we had a problem coming down the road, we had a (electricity rate) train wreck coming, the former chairman – Schisler - repeatedly, repeatedly briefed the legislative committees and the legislative leadership about the train wreck that was coming. The legislature failed to act. Governor Ehrlich did act…”

The Corrections: Mr. Redmer, what you were told to say by others (Since you were not there.) is fiction, not fact. Despite meetings between Schisler and various lawmakers in 2005 and 2006 and despite the fact that everyone knew the rate caps were coming off, Schisler raised NO red flags, showed no grave concern, gave no advance warning of any “train wreck” and provided no suggestions, solutions, changes or a plan to ease the pain for ratepayers, as he could have; as Mr. Ehrlich should have.

But here’s the real problem with that argument. It’s really a problem for Mr. Ehrlich. If Mr. Schisler knew a “train wreck” was coming (BEFORE the 2006 legislative session, I presume.) then Mr. Ehrlich knew. If Mr. Ehrlich knew, then the responsible thing for him to do was propose and discuss solutions as soon as he found out. It should have been an Ehrlich legislative priority for 2006. It wasn’t.

What does that say about Mr. Ehrlich even if Mr. Redmer is right in the first place?

Drilling for Oil in ANWR (The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge)

Mr. Ehrlich: “I did support ANWR drilling…I am very happy of that vote, very proud of that vote...We’ve been to ANWR…just about everyone I’ve seen opine on ANWR has never been there. We’ve been there, obviously we took advantage of the fact I was in Congress, it was an education trip. We were up there for two days and boy when you go there you see it, it was a no brainer.”

The Corrections: Mr. Ehrlich took his wife to Arctic Village, Alaska for four days in August of 2001 at a cost of $9,962.60. It was a junket paid for by an unusual pro-oil drilling lobby fund – set up specifically to promote drilling in ANWR by the state of Alaska. Of all the “trips” like this funded by either side of the issue, Mr. Ehrlich’s was by far the most expensive. Also sponsoring “educational trips” at the time: The Sierra Club. Nothing here is meant to imply that Mr. Ehrlich did anything illegal but few congressmen took the free trips. Most voted against drilling.

Professor Richard Vatz – Special Guest

Prof. Vatz: “The drilling that could bring a significant release… in terms of energy… for energy policy, this is what would solve this (gasoline price) problem… and in rhetoric it’s all in choices of facts. What facts you talk about, what facts you ignore.”

The Corrections: Choosing of facts is important, Dr. Vatz. Here are some you did not choose. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that when ANWR oil reaches full production it could mean a break in oil prices of a whopping 75 cents. That’s 75 cents off the $130 price of a barrel of oil, not a gallon of gas. If Congress acts this year we should see that benefit in about 10 years or so. Alaska’s Republican Sen. Ted Stevens requested the report.

A “Reason” why Barack Obama should not be elected President

Dee (Female Caller): “I think that if he (Barack Obama) is elected President that you will have all these people coming out of the woodwork - the militants, the Muslims, the Black Panthers - and then on the white side you will have the Ku Klux Klan with the skinheads. I mean they will be empowered because they will be, all these people will be emboldened with all this hate. And I don’t see how that’s going to heal this county because, huh, this is what we’ll have to deal with. “

Mr. Ehrlich: “Dee, I wish I could clone you. I wish I could clone you (laughter). I know it’s illegal.”

Mrs. Ehrlich: “You are an informed voter, which is what we were talking about, you have gotten into specifics.”

Prof. Vatz: “Exactly…”

The Corrections: Well, excuse me if I don’t check with the KKK or the skinheads before voting.

Are you folks kidding?

If you doubt what you’ve read or think the words have been edited out of context, I have it all recorded. Great care was taken to be faithful to the text and its meaning.