It is difficult to know what to make of a recent bizarre news video published on NewsOK.com, the Web site of The Oklahoman. The video featured two right-wing Oklahoman staffers "interviewing" the rambling, sometimes incoherent U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe.
Bizarre is the right word here, and it was hardly an interview. Washington-based Chris Casteel and Mark Green, who are really just quasi-GOP operatives, threw some softball questions at one of the world’s most despised politicians, and, well, the 73-year-old Inhofe rambled and digressed and showed once again he represents a shrinking, truly lunatic fringe of the Republican Party.
It is an understatement to say The Oklahoman is known for shoddy journalism, and Casteel and Green, of course, did not challenge Inhofe’s bizarre ramblings in the interview. Another take, however, might be that The Oklahoman is allowing Inhofe to self-inflict his own political ruin. That is wishful thinking, of course, and it gives the newspaper far too much credit. I think a better take is that Casteel and Green are actually fervent, religious-like believers in what Inhofe says in the interview. They may well also see their careers as biased, lazy "journalists" inextricably tied to Inhofe’s fortunes. If Inhofe remains in power, they can continue to get paid for easy-to-produce GOP propaganda.
Here are some highlights of the interview:
Inhofe says the recent losses of GOP House candidates to Democrats in Republican strongholds do not signify much, and, besides, it’s not October yet, so why worry? Oh yeah, says Inhofe, rising gasoline prices have replaced Iraq as the presidential campaign’s central issue, and everyone knows the Republicans are on the right side of this issue. Incredibly, Inhofe is arguing the same tired, GOP dogma on energy issues will actually bring victory to his party, which obviously favors policies that reward big energy companies at the expense of ordinary consumers. The GOP flacks, Casteel and Green, might have pointed out polls showing more than 80 percent of Americans believe the country is heading in the wrong direction on energy and many other issues, but that would be challenging Republican authority and thus their own sustenance as propagandists.
Perhaps, the weirdest comment was Inhofe’s argument that Imperial President George Bush’s declining approval ratings are just something that normally happens in the last six months of a presidency and, for that matter, Bush’s numbers are not that bad in Oklahoma. Casteel and Green might have pointed out that Bush’s declining ratings are the worst for a president in modern history, and even in Oklahoma, the reddest of red states, the Imperial President has been below 50 percent.
McCain is drifting left, according to Inhofe, to capture independent voters, but, rest assured, Oklahoma's senior Senator is not going there. All this McCain talk about cap-and-trade on carbon emissions if it were to become a reality will essentially destroy the American economy, says Inhofe. Maybe the "correspondents" should have asked if Oklahoma Republicans, then, should just not vote in November or vote for Obama or Clinton.
Inhofe claims he is going to have a tough 2008 reelection race because of outside interests who will try to Pombo him, and he has the evidence. (Former U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo, of California, was defeated in his 2006 election. Environmental groups worked to defeat him because of his dismal record on the environment.) But watch out for "illegal money" that might be used by Democratic groups, and, yeah, it is going to be tough, even though Democrats are still looking for a tier one candidate to run against him. Casteel and Green do not bring up the candidacy of state Sen. Andrew Rice, a Democrat who has raised over $1 million in campaign funds so far to challenge Inhofe.
My description here of the interview makes it seem somewhat linear. Inhofe often rambles off topic, sounds egotistical, and seems like a fool who believes in vast political conspiracies. Of course, environmental groups are going to come after Inhofe, who is the unspoken GOP leader on denying the dire effects of global warming, but is it, really, a conspiracy, whose members, as he puts it, include George Soros, Michael Moore and Barbara Streisand, or just concerned citizens exercising their rights in a democracy? McCain’s recognition of credible science and his recent proposals, of course, are just one more mark against Inhofe, who seems increasingly incoherent and pathetic.
(Cross posted at Okie Funk.)