Red State

Real money saved at the pump, even for a time as brief as the summer season? It's "a gimmick," according to Democratic nominee Barack Obama, "that would save you half a tank of gas over the course of the entire summer so that everyone in Washington can pat themselves on the back and say they did something."

Exemption from gas taxes just for Barack Obama himself and those involved in the Denver stop in the Obama Coronation Roadshow, though? Now that's a plan the freshman Senator from Illinois and his Democrat Convention host committee chums can get on board with!

The committee hosting the Democratic National Convention is using the city's gas pumps to fill up on fuel, avoiding state and federal highway taxes, officials said today.

"There's something there that just doesn't seem right to me because, in a sense, you're saying then that the officials who pass the laws are not willing to live by them, and that concerns me," Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz said.

Faatz asked if it was customary to have "fleets for dignitaries" not pay for highway taxes if they're using government fuel facilities.

Hickenlooper said it was.

"I believe this is only for elected officials, government dignitaries," Hickenlooper told Faatz.

[...]

"I am just troubled by not having the payment of taxes for what I consider to be a privately funded party, and that's what the host committee is: it's a private organization," [Faatz] said.

"The DNC is not government. The RNC is not government," Faatz added. "They are political parties and they are putting on a huge party, and that is not providing services to each and every citizen each day."

The man for whom this "privately funded party" is being thrown, who is still learning just how much he can get away with at public expense (and with full apologist activity engaged) while still claiming to represent the opposite of the Democrat-machine politics-as-usual operation he has been a part of since he began his political career in the Chicago community organization game, once said he "wanted signs on gas pumps in his [state Senate] district to say, “Senator Obama reduced your gasoline prices”."

Now, he wants signs on gas pumps in the area of the Democrat Convention to say the same thing to delegates and attendees, while all the rest of the great unwashed in America gets is the continued sight of Barack Obama pounding his fist and shouting from the podium (without a stutter, if he's reading from the TelePrompTer; if not, all bets are off), in the carrying baritone that the Chris Matthews' of the world have so fallen in love with, that the idea of a gas tax holiday for the rest of the country is but a "gimmick that would save you half a tank of gas over the course of the entire summer so that everyone in Washington can pat themselves on the back and say they did something."

Of course, as CBS news reported in April, "Obama took a different view on the [gas tax holiday] issue when he was an Illinois legislator, voting at least three times in favor of temporarily lifting the state's 5 percent sales tax on gasoline." Now, though, temporarily suspending gas taxes for the hoi polloi is "a gimmick," while saving some dough for his establishment cronies (who are in need of the handout -- or kickback, if you'd like to call it that -- due to their well-documented inability to raise anywhere near the amount of money they've committed to pay for their Denver Obamafest) is doubleplus cool.

And if called on it, I'm sure Senator Obama would slip into his (extremely, by this point) well-rehearsed mantra of claiming to have been "consistent this whole time" on the issue -- while, as always, still maintaining as brash a double standard as ever.