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The blackout that spanned from Detroit to New York City and from Ottawa to Akron was only a few hours old when liberals rushed to get on TV (where there was power, of course) to blame Republicans and Republican policies for the blackout.

At a time when no expert was even venturing an educated guess at what the problem was, Democrats claimed to have it all figured out. At the heart of the problem: Republicans and their evil, evil policies!

Readers of Reality Hammer know that kind of spin will not go unchallenged here. Liberals may get away with telling that kind of whopper in the mainstream media, but not here, not while I am writing this column. Without further ado, let's get right to the list of lies and liars.

• Hillary Clinton

  Is anyone surprised? Hillary was quick to blame President Bush for the blackout. Quick, as in within a mere twelve hours after the blackout hit. While power company experts were still formulating possible scenarios that could have led to the blackout, Hillary had it all figured out. Those poor, foolish power engineers, trying to test and validate the source of the problem! All they had to do was call Hillary!

  Hillary was, of course, wrong. We can review some facts that show why Hillary wanted dearly to get out a spin early and often. She and her husband, through their policies, are part of the problem!

  • In 2002 Hillary opposed a Bush administration proposal to allow utilities to upgrade their plants by relaxing a few of the more punishing environmental regulations.
  • Hillary consistently sides with the enviro-nuts, opposing nuclear power plants like the Indian Point plant, which supplies New York City with power. Reducing the number of local power plants puts an even greater strain on the power grid as power has to imported from distant generating plants in Canada and the midwest.

  Hillary also tried to blame "deregulation", telling Larry King:

  They have continued to try to push deregulation and privatization. And to try to undo a lot of the systems [and] changes that many of us thought were important and necessary that we tried to work on during the Clinton administration.

  Hillary can try to run from her poor record on energy, but she cannot hide. Nor can she change history, which shows that Bill Clinton supported deregulation while President:

  So long as White House air conditioners continue to whirr, President Clinton—who would like deregulation to be an accomplishment of his second term—can afford to sit back and let the political temperature rise. The hope seems to be that the worse things get, the more pressure will mount on Congress to legislate.
  —London Independent

  

  Clinton also cut spending on energy transmission infrastructure by 30%, as the chart to the right shows. Remember, this is when Enron was lobbying the Clinton White House, and when many former Clinton administration officials had joined that company. Transmission bottlenecks would help drive up profits for the energy trading firm as well as help deregulation legislation get passed. Both Clinton and Enron were ready to profit from the consumer's misery.

• Senator Kerry

  President-wannabe John "my middle initial is F, just like Kennedy" Kerry said:

  They have ignored the investment needs of our infrastructure in favor of a tax cut for the wealthy.

  No, Senator Kerry, that was the previous President. You know, the one from your party.

• Congressman Gephardt

  Another President-wannabe, Richard Gephardt tried to rewrite history when he said:

  These events illustrate how shortsighted the Bush administration and Republican-controlled Congress were in 2001 when they rejected modernization of our nation's power grid,

  Sorry, Congressman, but your party controlled the Senate in 2001, and it was the Republican House which passed energy legislation in 2001, while the Senate delayed until 2002, and even now Democrats in the Senate refuse to pass a compromise bill unless it is laden with goodies for them.

• Senator Cantwell

  This Senator from Washington also tried to blame "deregulation":

  Deregulation has left us without adequate consumer protection and safeguards like reliable service and protection from market manipulation.

  The problem for these anti-deregulation liberals is that (aside from the Democrat support for it in the 1990s) the transmission of energy, the part of the system that failed last week, has not been deregulated. Oops! Next time, Senator Cantwell should look before she leaps into her standard anti-capitalism rant.

Even more embarrassing for liberals is that President Bush's energy plan cited the need for improved transmission infrastructure:

One of the greatest energy challenges facing America is the need to use 21st- century technology to improve America’s aging energy infrastructure. Americans need a comprehensive, long-term solution to deliver energy to industry and consumers in a reliable and safe manner.

If transmission constraints are not removed, the result can be higher prices and lower reliability. There are various reasons why transmission constraints exist. One is the lack of sufficient investment in transmission. Transmission investment has lagged dramatically over the past decade.

Readers of the blog saw this a couple of days ago in our initial report on this matter. Apparently liberals in Congress do not have access to such high-quality research as do readers of Reality Hammer!

At a time when no expert was even venturing an educated guess at what the problem was, Democrats claimed to have it all figured out.

Those poor, foolish power engineers, trying to test and validate the source of the problem! All they had to do was call Hillary!

Clinton also cut spending on energy transmission infrastructure by 30%....

...the transmission of energy, the part of the system that failed last week, has not been deregulated