"Wanna change gears here for a second because Monday over one million immigrants skipped work and skipped school and marched in streets across America. What is it going to take, Senator, for Congress to come together and institute some meaningful immigrant reform, and how long is that going to take?"
Storm’s question on immigration came after she pounded the Senator for high gas prices. Storm began the interview by relaying poll numbers to Senator Frist and insinuated that the Republican party is beholden to special interests at the expense of the American people:
"Senator, we got some pretty stunning news. These new CBS News poll shows that no less than 87% of Americans think the government's not doing enough to keep these gas prices down. Now, the GOP energy package, as everybody knows, has been shelled because of opposition from business leaders. So now what? Do you have a realistic option to get the gas prices down?"
Storm then continued by ridiculing the idea of a $100 tax rebate, as if that was the only idea being floated around Congress:
"Well, you propose this $100 gas rebate, which has been criticized for many for sort of putting a band-aid on the problem. I mean at best, that might buy a couple of tanks of gas. If you have an SUV, maybe just one tank of gas. Are you going to push that forward?"
Frist rightly pointed out that was one of the short term options they were looking at, but also stressed the medium and long term solutions needed to increase supply through oil exploration and development of alternative energies and to reduce demand through better conservation. Anyone who thinks the situation with oil prices will be resolved in the short term is delusional, but there are short term relief measures the government can take and the $100 rebate is just one idea being explored.
Ms. Storm then proceeded to sensationalize the story. There was 1 school district in Tennessee that closed this past Friday as well as yesterday to conserve fuel due to the high prices. She took the opportunity to express outrage that children couldn’t go to school while oil companies were making "record profits:"
"I mean Senator, just looking at your home state of Tennessee, 3,800 school children did not go to school on Friday and Monday because they couldn't afford for the buses to run because of the high price of gas. And then on the other hand, you had these huge record profits by these oil companies. Doesn't that make you angry? Isn't there something Congress can do about it?"
The fact is, nobody likes high gas prices, but the media are taking upon itself the role of making life miserable for oil companies. Why doesn’t the media have that same passion for making life miserable for politicians who blocked through threatened filibusters comprehensive energy policy which has contributed to these high prices?
