[Anyone] Open your mail, Mr. Prez

[Thos Myers]

This column is by Bill Nemetz, one of Maine's finest newspaper columnists. He writes for the
Portland Press Herald and the Maine Sunday Telegram. From this past Sunday's edition:

COLUMN Mr. President, Please open your mail

By BILL NEMITZ July 20, 2008

Dear Mr. President,

You might recall that last year around this time, I wrote you a letter suggesting that you
save yourself a pile of grief and simply call it quits.

Well, you're still here. And despite polls showing that fewer than one in five Americans now
think you've got the country headed in the right direction, it appears you're going to play
out this presidency until its bitter (no, make that merciful) end.

So I have another suggestion. As long as you're still the leader of the free world and all,
you might want to consider at least answering your mail.

I'm talking about the letter you received early last week from Maine's two Republican
senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, along with 10 of their colleagues from both
parties.

In it, they asked that you join in a bipartisan "energy summit" to consider long- and
short-term strategies for dealing with the nation's ever-expanding energy crisis.

(That's right, the energy crisis. I know you're aware of it because just last week, when
reminded how in February you said you hadn't heard that gas was headed over $4 per gallon,
you replied, "I've heard it now." Nice save, sir.)

Anyway, the letter from Snowe et al (no sir, that's not a typo -- it's Latin) suggests a
sit-down involving "both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue" to talk about this whole energy mess.

"Americans are understandably concerned about the rising costs of commuting to work, heating
their homes and buying groceries," the senators wrote. "Our national reliance on foreign oil
continues to undermine and threaten American security and provide billions for America's
enemies."

Now Mr. President, I thought any talk about helping our enemies would get your immediate and
undivided attention. But it appears I was wrong.

I called Kurt Bardella, Sen. Snowe's spokesman, Wednesday to see if you'd responded to the
letter.

"Not yet," Bardella told me.

I called again Friday.

"Not yet," he said again.

Yes sir, I know that last week, you talked about what appears to be your energy plan: Lift
the ban on offshore drilling, which won't lower gas prices anytime soon but will provide the
reeling energy markets with a "psychological" boost.

And I know that last month, when the idea of a bipartisan energy summit was first floated in
Congress, your spokesman Tony Fratto said flatly, "A summit isn't the answer."

Well, maybe it is, Mr. President, and maybe it isn't. But with people here in Maine wondering
how they're going to stay warm this winter (there's even talk up north of folks sharing
households), you can't blame the good senators for at least wanting to sit down and talk
about potential solutions.

So please, go ahead and answer that letter. You'd restore a lot of faith in what's left of
our executive branch if you looked beyond what's good for the oil companies and, just this
once, provided the kind of leadership this country so desperately needs right now.

No can do?

Fine. Then at least write Sen. Snowe and her colleagues back to say you got their letter but
couldn't open it. Explain how reading anything from here on in would conflict with how you
plan to spend your final six months in office.

With your eyes closed.