Plane truth about Illinois green-pocrisy

Hulking Al Gore was all smiles when he clutched his Academy Award Sunday night. A day later, he was trying to extract his enormous carbon footprint from his mouth.

If anyone forgot why Gore lost the election in 2000, they were quickly reminded of his political ineptitude. Anyone who is trying to lead a global energy conservation movement ought to expect scrutiny of his own habits. Hell, he hasn't even installed solar panels yet.

In coming months, we are going to hear plenty from the political left about what we should be doing about global warming. From the right, we are going to be hearing more about "green-pocrisy" from left-wing celebrities and politicians.

Our own governor Rod Blagojevich, a hypocrite's hypocrite, already has amassed an impressive dossier in the genre.

Seizing on polling data no doubt, Blagojevich hopped on the green-wagon last month and already is blaming George W. Bush for federal inaction.

Now, despite inaction by President Bush, we must deal with it. By committing ourselves to action in Illinois, we can help minimize the effects of climate change and ensure our children and grandchildren inherit a healthy world full of opportunity."

Blagojevich made some of his green comments amid the revelation that his global warming advisory committee that he announced months previsiously has not even met yet.

What about his personal stewardship of planes and automobiles since he's been governor?

We all remember Chuck Goudie's multi-part expose in 2004 where he showed that Blagojevich took a virtual army of security personnel and SUV vehicles on trips to Boston and California. Only after the story aired did our ever environmentally sensitive governor say that maybe he ought to cut his security staff in half.

Goudie's work didn't prompt a green epiphany in Blago-world. An audit released last month showed that Blago's managers are wearing out the state airplane fleet between Chicago and Springfield at an unprecedented rate.

The Legislative Audit Commission ordered the audit in August 2005 in response to an Associated Press analysis of air fleet use in the first two and a half years of the Blagojevich administration.

That analysis found Blagojevich's administration had taken more than 3,000 more flights than were taken in the same period under his predecessor, and that some of his top Cabinet directors flew nearly once every two and a half days -- all at a fraction of IDOT's cost to offer the service.

Of course if Blagojevich cared about reducing carbon emissions he'd be paying attention to travel like this, which he could easily modify or curb.

It's not enough of a "carbon offset" that the governor himself never seems to go to Springfield…or anywhere else for that matter.

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