Profiles in Courage-

These are actual quotes by U.S. Senators explaining why they are voting down a proposal to set a 36-mile-per gallon standard for SUV's, one that is supposed to become law fifteen years from now. That's fifteen years from now. 15.

These come from the S.F. Chronicle and the Washington Post

Sen Barbara Mikulski D-MD (one of the supposed good guys):
Mothers want to be in the functional civilian equivalent of a Humvee" because of road rage and need large cars because "some children have backpacks as large as a Marine going off to Afghanistan," she said.


Sen. Zell Miller (D) Georgia (another supposed good guy):
....made an impassioned plea for "farmers and our rural families, our carpenters, our plumbers, our painters, our electricians -- those small businesses who rely on the pickup truck," describing the "hardworking people with calloused hands . . . the forgotten Americans who work from dawn to dark and then turn up lights on their pickups to work another hour."

And Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga.) believes the legislation should at least make an exception for pickups, which he described as the "think tank of rural America" because "more problems have been solved on the tailgates of pickup trucks after a long day's work than have been solved anywhere."

And from noted intellectual, Sen. Minority (thank God) leader Trent Lott:

Lott said the CAFE measure would rob him of quality time with his grandchildren because he likes "them to be able to ride in the same vehicle with me."

Holding up a large photograph of a tiny DaimlerChrysler micro-car, Lott declared that if fuel economy standards were raised, "you're going to drive the purple people eater here. I don't want every American to have to drive this car"

"I was over (in Europe), and I saw these cars," Lott said. "I saw people pick them up and move them to another parking space. I also wondered how I was going to get my 6-foot-2-inch frame into one of these."

Didn't someone once say "ask not what this country can do for you, but for what you can do for this country?" Apparently, paying a little bit more at the gas pumps might be asking a bit too much out of us.