Too bad Joe Kennedy isn’t here.
Alternatively, President Joe Biden could ask him for help extracting oil from Venezuela like Kennedy did to help those in need through the winter.
Remember “Call Joe-4-Oil?”
That would be Joe Kennedy II, 70, the former congressman (1987-1999) and not his son Joe Kennedy III, 40, who is also a former congressman (2013-2021).
Both are retired from public office, Joe II by choice and Joe III because he was defeated following an ill-planned campaign to unseat U.S. Senator Ed Markey in the 2020 Democratic primary.
It was not so long ago – 2005 – that the senior Kennedy, after leaving public office, returned to Citizen Energy Corporation, a non-profit organization he had previously founded, to provide fuel oil assistance to poor and the elderly.
Kennedy, with the blessing of dictator Hugo Chavez, struck a deal with Venezuela’s Citgo Petroleum Corp to get oil at a discount to help the poor after Hurricane Katrina severely damaged U.S. refining capacity. As winter approached, prices soared.
The deal came after Kennedy criticized President George W. Bush for not doing enough to help the poor after the hurricane, as well as Kennedy’s response to cuts in federal home heating oil assistance for the needy. .
For Chavez, it was a way of restoring his dictatorial image and sticking it to Bush.
Over the years, the program, launched in Massachusetts, has expanded to provide some $500 million in heating assistance to supplement federal energy assistance, to some two million households in 25 states. .
The program ended in 2017 when Nicolas Maduro, the communist dictator who succeeded Chavez, who died in 2013, turned Venezuela into an economic basket case.
Which is still the case, as evidenced by the thousands of Venezuelans who are abandoning their country and crossing an open border into the United States.
And the irony now is that Joe Biden, who declared war on US-generated energy early on, is now allowing Chevron to pump oil into Venezuela and sell it to the US.
While Kennedy at the time received a lot of flak from the crazed left for dealing with Chavez, the same leftists think it’s just fine for Biden to deal with Maduro, who is worse.
In other words, it’s fine to drill oil in Venezuela, or Saudi Arabia and Iran – and sell the oil to the United States – but it’s not fine to drill oil in the United States because it might upset the weather gods. change.
It’s yet another example of Biden reversing Trump’s policy to bolster his ineffectual leadership.
“No more drilling,” Biden said recently. So instead of creating jobs in the energy sector in the United States, the new jobs will be created in Venezuela.
Joe, you need help. So call 1-877-JOE-4-OIL You can get a recording. But leave a message.
What do you have to lose?
Peter Lucas is a veteran journalist and political columnist from Massachusetts.
Too bad Joe Kennedy isn’t here.
Alternatively, President Joe Biden could ask him for help extracting oil from Venezuela like Kennedy did to help those in need through the winter.
Remember “Call Joe-4-Oil?”
That would be Joe Kennedy II, 70, the former congressman (1987-1999) and not his son Joe Kennedy III, 40, who is also a former congressman (2013-2021).
Both are retired from public office, Joe II by choice and Joe III because he was defeated following an ill-planned campaign to unseat U.S. Senator Ed Markey in the 2020 Democratic primary.
It was not so long ago – 2005 – that the senior Kennedy, after leaving public office, returned to Citizen Energy Corporation, a non-profit organization he had previously founded, to provide fuel oil assistance to poor and the elderly.
Kennedy, with the blessing of dictator Hugo Chavez, struck a deal with Venezuela’s Citgo Petroleum Corp to get oil at a discount to help the poor after Hurricane Katrina severely damaged U.S. refining capacity. As winter approached, prices soared.
The deal came after Kennedy criticized President George W. Bush for not doing enough to help the poor after the hurricane, as well as Kennedy’s response to cuts in federal home heating oil assistance for the needy. .
For Chavez, it was a way of restoring his dictatorial image and sticking it to Bush.
Over the years, the program, launched in Massachusetts, has expanded to provide some $500 million in heating assistance to supplement federal energy assistance, to some two million households in 25 states. .
The program ended in 2017 when Nicolas Maduro, the communist dictator who succeeded Chavez, who died in 2013, turned Venezuela into an economic basket case.
Which is still the case, as evidenced by the thousands of Venezuelans who are abandoning their country and crossing an open border into the United States.
And the irony now is that Joe Biden, who declared war on US-generated energy early on, is now allowing Chevron to pump oil into Venezuela and sell it to the US.
While Kennedy at the time received a lot of flak from the crazed left for dealing with Chavez, the same leftists think it’s just fine for Biden to deal with Maduro, who is worse.
In other words, it’s fine to drill oil in Venezuela, or Saudi Arabia and Iran – and sell the oil to the United States – but it’s not fine to drill oil in the United States because it might upset the weather gods. change.
It’s yet another example of Biden reversing Trump’s policy to bolster his ineffectual leadership.
“No more drilling,” Biden said recently. So instead of creating jobs in the energy sector in the United States, the new jobs will be created in Venezuela.
Joe, you need help. So call 1-877-JOE-4-OIL You can get a recording. But leave a message.
What do you have to lose?
Peter Lucas is a veteran journalist and political columnist from Massachusetts.
