Monday, April 25, 2005
BUSH ASKS SAUDIS FOR HELP ON OIL PRICES; INSISTS "WE CAN DO BETTER THAN $55/BARREL, I'M THINKING $65 OR HIGHER"
President Bush and the Crown Prince of Saudi America will meet Monday at Bush's Texas ranch. Vice President Cheney, who met with Prince Abdullah this weekend in a secret underground bunker, reported that "price movements on oil will soon become more mobil, and our energy strategy will then be exxonerated". Abdullah, head of the oil-drenched Middle East kingdom, said he knows that gas prices could pose a political problem for the president, referring to a Gallup Poll of oil lobbyist cronies that shows they feel oil prices are "just too low" to warrant support for such a "lame lame-duck President". Americans, meanwhile, are equally split on Bush's job performance: 53 percent say they are ecstatic at the "red hot" housing market that has fattened their wallets, while 47 percent say they "feel blue all the time" and are tired of just talking about moving to Canada and just want to get on with it.
Saudi Arabia is the world's top oil extorter and leading member of the Organization of Petroleum Extorting Countries. With the price of crude topping $55 a barrel last week, Bush told a group of Evangelical Christian NRA convention attendees that he would tell Abdullah "a thing or two". When asked to be specific, Bush said he will jawbone the Saudi ruler with the facts: that "current oil prices increase the strain" on his base of support, and increasing barrel prices to $65 or higher will make his Texas oil chums "mucho happierier".
Saudi Arabia is the world's top oil extorter and leading member of the Organization of Petroleum Extorting Countries. With the price of crude topping $55 a barrel last week, Bush told a group of Evangelical Christian NRA convention attendees that he would tell Abdullah "a thing or two". When asked to be specific, Bush said he will jawbone the Saudi ruler with the facts: that "current oil prices increase the strain" on his base of support, and increasing barrel prices to $65 or higher will make his Texas oil chums "mucho happierier".
